Endothelin-1 inhibits the slow component of cardiac delayed rectifier K+ currents via a pertussis toxin-sensitive mechanism.

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a 21-amino acid peptide hormone released from myocardial and endothelial cells, whose receptors (both ETA and ETB are expressed in the myocardium. We report here that ET-1 inhibits the cardiac delayed rectifier K+ current (IK) via a pertussis toxin (PTX)-sensitive mechanism. Ventricular myocytes enzymatically isolated from guinea pig hearts were voltage-clamped by the conventional whole-cell and nystatin-perforated patch technique (intrapipette and extrapipette K+ concentrations, 150 and 5.4 mmol/L, respectively) in the presence of nifedipine (2 mumol/L). Amplitudes of tail and steady state (2-second pulse) currents were measured as IK. ET-1 suppressed the basal IK by 20.9 +/- 2.3% in a concentration-dependent manner, with an IC50 of 1.1 +/- 0.3 nmol/L (n = 19), although it did not suppress the basal IK using the nystatin method. E-4031 (5 mumol/L), a blocker of the rapid component of IK (IKr), did not prevent the inhibitory action of ET-1. ET-1 reduced by 63.4 +/- 6.5% the slow component of IK (IKs) that had been enhanced to approximately 2-fold by isoproterenol (ISO, 20 nmol/L). The action was concentration dependent, with an IC50 of 0.7 +/- 0.4 nmol/L (n = 22), and was also observed using the nystatin method. The effect of ET-1 appeared to be mediated by an ETA receptor, because it was prevented by FR139317, an ETA-selective antagonist (1 mumol/L, n = 4), and sarafotoxin s6c, an ETB-selective agonist (100 nmol/L, n = 4), could not inhibit the ISO-enhanced IK. ET-1 antagonized IKs enhanced by histamine (250 nmol/L, n = 7) and forskolin (500 nmol/L, n = 7) but did not inhibit IKs enhanced by the internal application of cAMP (100 mumol/L, n = 6). Preincubation of myocytes with PTX (5 micrograms/mL for > 60 minutes at 36 degrees C) completely abolished the inhibitory action of ET-1 on the ISO-enhanced IKs (n = 4). Thus, nanomolar ET-1 inhibits IKs via the ETA receptor/PTX-sensitive G protein/PKA pathway.