• Toxicological Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.141-148
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• 2014

Endothelium-derived relaxing factors (EDRFs), including nitric oxide (NO), prostacyclin ($PGI_2$), and endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF), play pivotal roles in regulating vascular tone. Reduced EDRFs cause impaired endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, or endothelial dysfunction. Impaired endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in response to acetylcholine (ACh) is consistently observed in conduit vessels in human patients and experimental animal models of hypertension. Because small resistance arteries are known to produce more than one type of EDRF, the mechanism(s) mediating endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in small resistance arteries may be different from that observed in conduit vessels under hypertensive conditions, where vasorelaxation is mainly dependent on NO. EDHF has been described as one of the principal mediators of endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in small resistance arteries in normotensive animals. Furthermore, EDHF appears to become the predominant endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation pathway when the endothelial NO synthase (NOS3)/NO pathway is absent, as in NOS3-knockout mice, whereas some studies have shown that the EDHF pathway is dysfunctional in experimental models of hypertension. This article reviews our current knowledge regarding EDRFs in small arteries under normotensive and hypertensive conditions.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2001

Hyperpolarization of arterial smooth muscle by acetylcholine is considered to be produced by the release of an unidentified chemical substance, an endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF). Several chemicals have been proposed as the candidate for EDHF. However, none of them fulfil completely the nature and property of EDHF. Ultrastructural observation with electron microscope reveals that in some arteries, gap junctions are formed between endothelial and smooth muscle cells. In small arterioles, injection of gap junction permeable dyes into an endothelial cell results in a distribution of the dye to surrounding cells including smooth muscle cells. These observations allow the speculation that myoendothelial gap junctions may have a functional significance. Simultaneous measurement of the electrical responses in both endothelial and smooth muscle cells using the double patch clamp method demonstrates that these two cell types are indeed electrically coupled, indicating that they behave as a functional syncytium. The EDHF-induced hyperpolarization is produced by an activation of $Ca^{2+}-sensitive\;K^+-channels$ that are inhibited by charybdotoxin and apamin. Agonists that release EDHF increase $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ in endothelial cells but not in smooth muscle cells. Inhibition of gap junctions with chemical agents abolishes the agonist-induced hyperpolarization in smooth muscle cells but not in endothelial cells. All these observations can be explained if EDHF is an electrotonic signal propagating from endothelium to smooth muscle cells through gap junctions.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.709-715
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of atropine on peripheral vasodilation and the mechanisms involved. The isometric tension of rat mesenteric artery rings was recorded in vitro on a myograph. The results showed that atropine, at concentrations greater than 1$\mu$M, relaxed the noradrenalin (NA)-precontracted rat mesenteric artery in a concentration-dependent manner. Atropine-induced vasodilatation was mediated, in part, by an endothelium-dependent mechanism, to which endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor may contribute. Atropine was able to shift the NA-induced concentration-response curve to the right, in a non-parallel manner, suggesting the mechanism of atropine was not mediated via the ${\alpha}_1$-adrenoreceptor. The $\beta$-adrenoreceptor and ATP sensitive potassium channel, a voltage dependent calcium channel, were not involved in the vasodilatation. However, atropine inhibited the contraction derived from NA and $CaCl_2$ in $Ca^{2+}$-free medium, in a concentration dependent manner, indicating the vasodilatation was related to the inhibition of extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ influx through the receptor-operated calcium channels and intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release from the $Ca^{2+}$ store. Atropine had no effect on the caffeine-induced contraction in the artery segments, indicating the inhibition of intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ release as a result of atropine most likely occurs via the IP3 pathway rather than the ryanodine receptors. Our results suggest that atropine-induced vasodilatation is mainly from artery smooth muscle cells due to inhibition of the receptor-mediated $Ca^{2+}$-influx and $Ca^{2+}$-release, and partly from the endothelium mediated by EDHF.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.389-396
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• 2002

In the present work, we examined the mechanism of vasorelaxant effect of scopoletin, an active constituent of Artemisia capillaris on rat thoracic descending aortic rings. Scopoletin induced a concentration-dependent relaxation in rat thoracic descending aortic rings pre-contracted with phenylephrine (EC/sub 50/ = 238.94±37.4 μM), while it was less effective in rat thoracic descending aortic rings precontracted with high potassium solution (KCI 30 mM). Vasorelaxation by scopoletin was significantly inhibited after endothelial removal, but recovered at high concentration. Pretreatment of rat thoracic descending aortic rings with N/sup G/-nitro-L-arginine (100 μM), a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, and atropine (1 μM), a muscarinic receptor antagonist, significantly inhibited scopoletin-induced relaxation of rat thoracic descending aortic rings. Neither indomethacin (3 μM), an inhibitor of cydooxygenase, nor propranolol (1 μM), a β -adrenoceptor antagonist, modified the effect of scopoletin. The combination of N/sup G/ -nitro-L-arginine (100 μ M) and miconazole (10 μ M), an inhibitor of cytochrome P 450, did not modify the effect of scopoletin, when compared with pretreatment with N/sup G/-nitro-L-arginine(100 μM) alone. Vasorelaxant effect of scopoletin was inverted by pretreatment with diltiazem (10 μM), a Ca/sup 2+/-channel blocker, at low concentration, while restored at high concentration. Apamin (K/sub ca/-channel blocker, 1 μM), 4-aminopyridine (4-AP, K/sub v/-channel blocker, 1 mM), and tetrodotoxin (TTX, Na/sup +/-channel blocker 1 μM) potentiated the vasorelaxant effect of scopoledn, but glibendamide (K/sub ATP/-channel blocker, 10 μM), tetraetylammonium(TEA, non-selective K-channel blocker, 10 mM) did not affect the relaxation of scopoletin. Free radical scavengers (TEMPO, catalase, mannitol) did not modify vascular tone. These results suggest that nitric oxide, Ca/sup 2+/ -channels play a role in endothelium-dependent relaxations to scopoletin in rat aortas, that apamin, 4-AP, TTX but not glibenclamide, TEA potentiated relaxation to scopoletin mediated by these channels, and that free radicals do not concern to the vasorelaxant effect of scopoletin.