Endothelium-dependent and independent vasodilation of isolated rat aorta induced by caffeine. Hatano, Yoshio, Kazuhiro Mizumoto, Takeshi Yoshiyama, Manabu Yamamoto, and Hiroshi Iranami. Department of Anesthesiology, Wakayama Medical College, 7-ban-cho 27, Wakayama 640, Japan; and Department of Anesthesiology, Kyoto University Hospital, sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-61, Japan
APStracts 2:0242H, 1995.
Caffeine (10-4 to 10-3 M) induced concentration-dependent relaxations of phenylephrine-precontracted rat aortic rings with endothelium. Endothelial denudation attenuated caffeine-induced relaxation significantly, but only partially. Pretreatment with NG-nitro-L -arginine, oxyhemoglobin and methylene blue attenuated the relaxations to a similar extent as endothelial denudation. Cyclic GMP and cyclic AMP contents of aortic strips with endothelium increased significantly following exposure to caffeine (10-3 M). Endothelial denudation attenuated caffeine-induced cyclic GMP increase. Pretreatment with ryanodine (2X10-5 M), which has been shown to combine with receptors on endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of endothelium, attenuated caffeine-induced relaxation and cyclic GMP content increase of rings with endothelium. Pretreatment with caffeine potentiated sodium nitroprusside-induced relaxations and cyclic GMP increase of rings without endothelium. These results demonstrated that caffeine-induced relaxation comprises two components. In endothelium-dependent mechanism, caffeine promotes nitric oxide synthesis in endothelium by release Ca2+ from ER through ryanodine -sensitive Ca2+ channel and the suppression of cyclic GMP degradation also contributes to the relaxation. In endothelium-independent mechanism, caffeine acts as a cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor.

Received 8 August 1994; accepted in final form 1 June 1995.
APS Manuscript Number H703-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Heart Circ. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on  6 July 1995.