Pial arterioles on the surface of the mouse brain were observed via television microscopy and measured with an image-splitting technique. The vessels were dilated by L-arginine (L-Arg) in concentrations as low as 10(-5) M and were constricted in dose-dependent manner by NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA). Both the dilation and the constriction were abolished by endothelial damage. This damage was produced over a short segment of endothelium by a well-established technique that involves exposing the endothelium to a helium-neon laser in the presence of intravascular Evans blue dye. In arterioles that were responsive to 10(-5) M L-Arg, five other L-amino acids, also at 10(-5) M, failed to have any effect. The data provide direct evidence for the endothelium-dependent nature of the responses to L-Arg and L-NMMA in vivo in a defined segment of the cerebral vasculature. L-NMMA inhibited dilation by either L-Arg or acetylcholine. The data are consistent with data from in vitro studies and from studies demonstrating that L-NMMA acutely raises blood pressure. From all these earlier studies it has been hypothesized that there is a continuously acting, endothelium-dependent, L-Arg-dependent, and L-NMMA-inhibitable mechanism tending to relax blood vessels. The mediator of this mechanism is thought to be the endothelium-dependent relaxing factor for acetylcholine. Our data suggest that this mechanism is acting in the resistance vessels of the brain in vivo.
This study demonstrates endothelium-dependent relaxation in the surface arterioles of the brain. A helium-neon laser was used to injure endothelium in situ following i.v. injection of Evans blue dye, which sensitizes the bed to the laser. Areas 18 or 36 micron in diameter were injured and no longer relaxed to either 1 ml of acetylcholine chloride or bradykinin triacetate, 80 micrograms/ml delivered for 60 seconds. Dilations to sodium nitroprusside (30 micrograms/ml) were unaffected. Normal responses to nitroprusside, plus electron microscopy, established that vascular smooth muscle was uninjured. Endothelium-dependent relaxation was impaired when only minor ultrastructural damage was present. Dilation was inhibited downstream and upstream as far as 80 micron from the center of the laser beam. This suggests a spread of endothelium injury around the site of laser impact. However, inhibition was somewhat more marked downstream than upstream, implying that a portion of the downstream response was dependent on a substance released from an upstream site. To date, very few studies have reported endothelium-dependent relaxation in vivo, especially in the microcirculation. The present study accomplishes this. Moreover, in contrast to in vitro observations of endothelium-dependent relaxation in large vessels, the in vivo elimination of endothelium-dependent relaxation in the microcirculation required neither removal of endothelium nor injury to large numbers of endothelium cells. Since endothelium-dependent relaxation in the microcirculation has now been demonstrated using three different techniques to injure endothelium, it is reasonable to conclude that the phenomenon is real.
PECAM is an important modulator of platelet adhesion/aggregation at sites of minor endothelial damage in brain arterioles. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that PECAM sites on the endothelium are involved and may be exposed by the injury to promote adhesion/aggregation. Since the endothelial cell layer is intact at these sites, mechanisms such as this offer important alternatives to the more commonly studied pathways of platelet activation, which require exposure of collagen and are not applicable in this model.
Endothelium-dependent constriction in mouse pial arterioles was demonstrated by testing contractile responses before and after endothelial injury. All responses were monitored at the same site as the injury. Injury was produced in vivo by exposing an arteriole on the brain surface to the beam of a 6-mW helium-neon laser after first sensitizing the micro vascular bed to the laser energy by injecting Evans blue intravenously. The contractile response to serotonin creatinine sulfate (20 /tg/ml) and to sodium arachidonate (30 /ig/ml) was monitored in vivo with an Image splitter and TV microscope. The responses before laser injury were always constriction; the responses after laser injury were always relaxation. After laser injury, acetykholine chloride (80 /ig/ml) constricted every vessel tested at the injured site. Thus, the injured segment had not lost the capacity to constrict even though neither serotonin nor arachidonate remained able to induce a constriction. The endothelium-dependent constrictions to serotonin or arachidonate were also blocked by pretreatment of the mouse with cyclooxygenase inhibitors, acetylsaUcylic acid (100 mg/kg i.p.) or indomethacin (5 mg/kg). The data suggests that endothelium-dependent constriction to serotonin is mediated by release of arachidonate from the endothelial cell and conversion of that arachidonate by cyclooxygenase to some constricting prostanoid. (Circulation Research 1988;63:837-843) T he study of vascular physiology has been greatly altered by the relatively recent discovery that endothelial cell products mediate dilation by many agonists. '-3 The agonists involved differ somewhat depending on animal species and on the particular vascular bed within a species. '-5 The number and nature of the endothelium-derived relaxing factors that actually control the dilations in question have not yet been resolved.6 -' 2 The existence of endotheliumdependent constriction has also been reported but in relatively few investigations. n~22The evidence for both endothelium-dependent constriction and dilation was originally based on in vitro studies of large vessels. A major method used to establish the existence of these phenomena has been to destroy a portion of the endothelial cells and to demonstrate altered relaxation or constriction to selected agonists while the effects of other
As previously reported, NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) constricted pial arterioles, inhibited dilation of pial arterioles by acetylcholine (ACh) or L-arginine (L-Arg), and enhanced platelet adhesion/aggregation at sites of endothelial damage. However, all of these effects were inhibited by local application of 20 micrograms/ml indomethacin (Indo). When 100 micrograms/ml acetylsalicylic acid were used instead of Indo, the acid also blocked the effects of L-NMMA. Superoxide dismutase (SOD; 50 U/ml) blocked the constriction produced by L-NMMA and also blocked the constriction produced by N omega-nitro-L-arginine (NNA). SOD also prevented L-NMMA from blocking dilation by ACh. SOD itself had no effect on diameter or on the response to ACh, norepinephrine, or BaCl2. The effects of L-NMMA and of Indo were also selective. Thus L-NMMA did not inhibit dilation by prostacyclin or bradykinin, and Indo did not inhibit dilation by prostacyclin. Indo did not interfere with the ability of arginase to enhance platelet adhesion/aggregation or with the ability of ACh or L-Arg to inhibit adhesion/aggregation. We conclude that in mouse cerebral microcirculation the ability of L-NMMA and NNA to constrict arterioles, the ability of L-NMMA to inhibit dilation by ACh or L-Arg and the ability of L-NMMA to enhance platelet adhesion/aggregation are all related to interference with phenomena dependent on "classical" endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRFACh). However, in this preparation the action of L-NMMA or NNA may not be due to competitive inhibition of the enzyme producing EDRFACh from L-Arg. Rather, L-NMMA and NNA appear to activate cyclooxygenase with resultant production of superoxide, which inactivates EDRFACh.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.