Objective: To determine whether cholinergic stimulation of human coronary endothelial cells induces the release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), denuded human coronary artery rings or denuded rabbit aorta rings were either directly perfused or superfused by the effluent of intact or denuded human coronary artery segments in a perfusion bioassay system.
Design: Coronary vessels were dissected from hearts of organ donors and prepared for use as donor segments and detector rings in the perfusion bioassay system. Segments were continuously perfused by an oxygenated Krebs-Ringer solution. Rings were suspended between two stirrups, one of which was connected to an isometric force transducer. They were either directly perfused (no tissue had been previously perfused by the same Krebs-Ringer) or superfused by the effluent of an endothelium-intact or -denuded coronary segment. Human rings were contracted with prostaglandin F2 alpha (2 x 10(-6) M) and rabbit rings were contracted with phenylephrine (10(-6) M).
Results: Tension in detector tissue did not change during superfusion with effluent from endothelium-denuded or -intact human coronary artery segments, showing that there was no basal release of EDRF/nitric oxide (NO) in this preparation. Acetylcholine (ACh) (10(-6) or 10(-5) M) added to the perfusate increased the tension of the precontracted endothelium-denuded human rings directly perfused (50 +/- 32%) but not of the precontracted rabbit rings, showing that ACh is a potent agonist of human coronary vascular smooth muscle. ACh added to the coronary segment in the endothelium-intact superfusion mode had no effect in 33% or induced a small relaxation (8.8 +/- 1.6%) in 66% of the preparations. Hemoglobin (10(-5) M), a scavenger of EDRF/NO, caused a further increase in tension (32 +/- 15%). Adding calcium ionophore (A 23187;10(-5) M), which stimulates EDRF/NO release through a nonreceptor-mediated mechanism, to the coronary artery segment induced a relaxation in the endothelium-perfused detector rings which did not relax to ACh (30 +/- 2%); this relaxation was reversed by methylene blue (10(-5) M), a blocker of soluble guanylate cyclase. NO endothelin, a potent vasoconstrictor released by the endothelial cells, was detected in the effluent of intact coronary vessels.
Conclusion: The results suggest that in two-thirds of the six preparations studied, cholinergic stimulation can release EDRF from human donor coronary artery endothelial cells.