title: Cyclooxygenase contracting factors and altered pulmonary vascular responses in chronically hypoxic newborn pigs.
abstract: Pulmonary hypertension and blunted pulmonary vascular responses to ACh develop when newborn pigs are exposed to chronic hypoxia for 3 days. To determine whether a cyclooxygenase (COX)-dependent contracting factor, such as thromboxane, is involved with altered pulmonary vascular responses to ACh, newborn piglets were raised in 11% O(2) (hypoxic) or room air (control) for 3 days. Small pulmonary arteries (100-400 microm diameter) were cannulated and pressurized, and their responses to ACh were measured before and after either the COX inhibitor indomethacin; a thromboxane synthesis inhibitor, dazoxiben or feregrelate; or the thromboxane-PGH(2)-receptor antagonist SQ-29548. In control arteries, indomethacin reversed ACh responses from dilation to constriction. In contrast, hypoxic arteries constricted to ACh before indomethacin and dilated to ACh after indomethacin. Furthermore, ACh constriction in hypoxic arteries was nearly abolished by either dazoxiben, feregrelate, or SQ-29548. These findings suggest that thromboxane is the COX-dependent contracting factor that underlies the constrictor response to ACh that develops in small pulmonary arteries of piglets exposed to 3 days of hypoxia. The early development of thromboxane-mediated constriction may contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension in newborns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, USA. cfike@wfubmc.edu
authors.forename: Candice D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Fike
authors.forename: Sandra L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Pfister
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kaplowitz
authors.forename: Jane A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Madden
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D000001:Calcimycin / Q000494:pharmacology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000201:enzymology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D009129:Muscle Tonus / Q000502:physiology; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000502:physiology; D011451:Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases / Q000502:physiology*; D011652:Pulmonary Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D026423:S-Nitroso-N-Acetylpenicillamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D013552:Swine; D013931:Thromboxanes / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D013931:Thromboxanes; D000001:Calcimycin; D026423:S-Nitroso-N-Acetylpenicillamine; D011451:Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases; D000109:Acetylcholine