Endothelial defect mediates attenuated vasorelaxant response to isoproterenol after lung transplantation

Abstract

We have previously demonstrated that pulmonary vasodilation in response to isoproterenol is attenuated in conscious dogs after left lung autotransplantation (LLA). Our present goal was to identify the cellular mechanism responsible for this dysfunction. Size- and position-matched pulmonary arterial rings were isolated from the right (control) and left (LLA) lungs of 23 dogs 1–14 mo post-LLA. The rings were suspended for isometric tension recording and precontracted, and the vasorelaxant responses to activators of the β-adrenoreceptor signaling pathway were examined. With the endothelium intact the maximal pulmonary vasorelaxant response to isoproterenol was reduced ( P < 0.02) to 57 ± 9% in LLA rings, compared with 87 ± 3% in control rings. Responses to the Gs protein activator cholera toxin were also attenuated post-LLA, with the concentration-effect curve shifted to the right ( P < 0.01) and no change in the maximal response. In contrast, the vasorelaxant responses to forskolin (adenylyl cyclase activator) or dibutyryl cAMP were similar in endothelium-intact control and LLA rings. In endothelium-denuded rings the maximal vasorelaxant responses to isoproterenol were reduced ( P < 0.01) to ∼25% in both control and LLA rings. In denuded rings cholera toxin, forskolin, and dibutyryl cAMP caused 100% vasorelaxation, and the IC50 values for these agonists were similar in control and LLA rings. Isoproterenol increased ( P < 0.05) tissue cAMP to the same extent in control and LLA rings with or without endothelium. In contrast, isoproterenol increased ( P< 0.05) tissue cGMP only in endothelium-intact rings, and this effect was reduced ( P < 0.05) ∼50% in LLA rings compared with control. Oxypurinol (endothelial xanthine oxidase inhibitor) restored the pulmonary vasorelaxant response to isoproterenol in endothelium-intact LLA rings. Our results provide the first evidence that activation of the β-adrenoreceptor signaling pathway in endothelium-intact pulmonary arterial rings results in an increase in cGMP. Moreover, the attenuation in β-adrenoreceptor-mediated pulmonary vasorelaxation post-LLA is due to inactivation of nitric oxide by endothelium-derived superoxide anion.

Elevated glucose impairs cAMP-mediated dilation by reducing Kv channel activity in rat small coronary smooth muscle cells

“…Our data showed that HG had no effect on production of cAMP stimulated by forskolin in rat small coronary arteries. Similar findings were reported by Yoshida et al (32), in which decreased dilation to isoproterenol was observed in pulmonary arteries with unchanged cAMP levels after lung transplantation where oxidative stress was enhanced. The direct effect of O 2 Ϫ ⅐, generated by hypoxanthine and xanthine oxidase, on cAMP and cGMP production was examined in cultured aortic smooth muscle cells from Wistar-Kyoto or spontaneously hypertensive rats (30).…”

Postnatal changes in β‐adrenoceptors in the lung and the effect of hypoxia induced pulmonary hypertension of the newborn

“…Isoprenaline increased the nitric oxide synthase and adenyl cyclase activity in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (Ferro et al ., 1999). Canine pulmonary arteries demonstrate endothelium dependent vasodilatation to isoprenaline via the release of NO leading to an increase in cyclic GMP in addition to an endothelium independent increase in cyclic AMP (Yoshida et al ., 1999). In adult rat pulmonary arteries it appears that ATP‐sensitive K + channels contribute to the isoprenaline induced relaxation of the smooth muscle cells (Sheridan et al ., 1997).…”