HETEROGENEITY OF VASCULAR SMOOTH MUSCLE α‐ADRENOCEPTORS IN CANINE BLOOD VESSELS Journal Articles uri icon

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abstract

  • SUMMARY1. For the past decade, using radioligand binding, contractility and immunohistochemical techniques, we have been characterizing vascular smooth muscle (VSM) adrenoceptors in four functionally different canine blood vessels, namely the dog aorta (DAO), dog mesenteric artery (DMA), dog mesenteric vein (DMV) and dog saphenous vein (DSV).2. This communication briefly reviews our findings (with a special emphasis on α‐adrenoceptor subtypes), which showed that none of the four canine vessels showed the same complement of α‐adrenoceptor subtypes.3. All four vessels elicited α1‐adrenoceptor contractile responses (antagonized by prazosin), but α2‐adrenoceptor responses (sensitive to rauwolscine), were found only in DMV and DSV.4. Pharmacological characterization using α1‐adrenoceptor subtype‐selective antagonists showed that DAO contains mainly α1B‐adrenoceptors (some α1D‐adrenoceptors) and DMA has primarily α1A/1L‐adrenoceptors. α1‐Adrenoceptors in DMV are primarily of the α1D subtype, but either a new or unusual α1‐adrenoceptor subtype was revealed in the DSV.

publication date

  • October 7, 1999