Nitric Oxide Modulation of Coronary Artery Myogenic Tone in Spontaneously Hypertensive and Wistar—Kyoto Rats

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Abstract
1. The endothelium contributes substantially to the modulation of myogenic tone in coronary arteries from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar—Kyoto rats (WKY). This study has addressed the contributions of endothelium-derived nitric oxide and cyclo-oxygenase products to this modulation in small coronary arteries (approximately 200 μm internal diameter) from 20-week-old SHR and WKY under pressurized, no-flow conditions in an arteriograph. 2. Active pressure—diameter relationships were uninfluenced by the cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor indomethacin (10 μmol/l) in either rat strain. In the presence of indomethacin and the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor Nω-nitro-l-arginine (l-NNA, 0.1 mmol/l), coronary arteries from SHR and WKY generated significantly greater myogenic tone. This increase in tone was similar in both strains. 3. In endothelium-denuded arteries, indomethacin and l-NNA did not influence tone. 4. Therefore, these results demonstrate that endothelium-derived nitric oxide is basally released to attenuate SHR and WKY coronary artery myogenic tone, whereas endothelium-derived cyclo-oxygenase products have no net vasoactive influence. Additionally, these data suggest that basal nitric oxide-mediated relaxation is normal in SHR coronary arteries and is therefore unlikely to be a pathogenic mechanism in this animal model of hypertension.

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