Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology logoLink to British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
. 1991 May;31(5):521–524. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.1991.tb05573.x

The effect of intra-arterial endothelin on resting blood flow and sympathetically mediated vasoconstriction in the forearm of man.

J R Cockcroft 1, J G Clarke 1, D J Webb 1
PMCID: PMC1368469  PMID: 1888618

Abstract

1. The hypothesis that endothelin (ET) influences sympathetically mediated vasoconstriction was investigated in 13 healthy, male subjects. 2. ET (1 pmol min-1) was infused for 60 min into the left brachial arteries of seven healthy male subjects. Resting forearm blood flow, and sympathetic vasoconstriction produced by lower body negative pressure (LBNP; 15 mm Hg), was measured in both arms by strain gauge plethysmography. In a further six subjects, noradrenaline (NA) was infused intra-arterially at doses of 150-600 pmol min-1, with and without co-infusion of ET (1 pmol min-1), with blood flow measured in both forearms. 3. ET produced a small but significant reduction of blood flow in the infused forearm from 3.9 +/- 0.6 ml 100 ml-1 min-1 during infusion of saline, to 3.3 +/- 0.7 ml 100 ml-1 min-1 during infusion of ET at 60 min (P less than 0.05). Blood flow in the non-infused forearm was not altered by ET infusion. 4. NA produced a significant and dose-dependent reduction of blood flow in the infused forearm from 3.13 +/- 0.5 ml 100 ml-1 min-1 during saline infusion, to 1.49 +/- 0.2 ml 100 ml-1 min-1 with NA at 600 pmol min-1 (P less than 0.001). During co-infusion of ET, blood flow was reduced similarly in the infused arm from 3.15 +/- 0.7 ml 100 ml-1 min-1 during saline infusion to 1.55 +/- 0.2 ml 100 ml-1 min-1 with NA at 600 pmol min-1. Blood flow in the non-infused arm was not altered by ET and NA infusion.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Full text

PDF

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Abboud F. M., Eckberg D. L., Johannsen U. J., Mark A. L. Carotid and cardiopulmonary baroreceptor control of splanchnic and forearm vascular resistance during venous pooling in man. J Physiol. 1979 Jan;286:173–184. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1979.sp012612. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Ardill B. L., Bannister R. G., Fentem P. H., Greenfield A. D. Circulatory responses of supine subjects to the exposure of parts of the body below the xiphisternum to subatmospheric pressure. J Physiol. 1967 Nov;193(1):57–72. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1967.sp008343. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Boarder M. R., Marriott D. B. Characterization of endothelin-1 stimulation of catecholamine release from adrenal chromaffin cells. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol. 1989;13 (Suppl 5):S223–S224. doi: 10.1097/00005344-198900135-00066. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Brown E., Goei J. S., Greenfield A. D., Plassaras G. C. Circulatory responses to simulated gravitational shifts of blood in man induced by exposure of the body below the iliac crests to sub-atmospheric pressure. J Physiol. 1966 Apr;183(3):607–627. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1966.sp007887. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Clarke J. G., Benjamin N., Larkin S. W., Webb D. J., Davies G. J., Maseri A. Endothelin is a potent long-lasting vasoconstrictor in men. Am J Physiol. 1989 Dec;257(6 Pt 2):H2033–H2035. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.1989.257.6.H2033. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hughes A. D., Thom S. A., Woodall N., Schachter M., Hair W. M., Martin G. N., Sever P. S. Human vascular responses to endothelin-1: observations in vivo and in vitro. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol. 1989;13 (Suppl 5):S225–S228. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Johnson J. M., Rowell L. B., Niederberger M., Eisman M. M. Human splanchnic and forearm vasoconstrictor responses to reductions of right atrial and aortic pressures. Circ Res. 1974 Apr;34(4):515–524. doi: 10.1161/01.res.34.4.515. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Koyama H., Tabata T., Nishzawa Y., Inoue T., Morii H., Yamaji T. Plasma endothelin levels in patients with uraemia. Lancet. 1989 May 6;1(8645):991–992. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(89)92631-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Tabuchi Y., Nakamaru M., Rakugi H., Nagano M., Ogihara T. Endothelin enhances adrenergic vasoconstriction in perfused rat mesenteric arteries. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1989 Mar 31;159(3):1304–1308. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(89)92252-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Vierhapper H., Wagner O., Nowotny P., Waldhäusl W. Effect of endothelin-1 in man. Circulation. 1990 Apr;81(4):1415–1418. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.81.4.1415. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. WHITNEY R. J. The measurement of volume changes in human limbs. J Physiol. 1953 Jul;121(1):1–27. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1953.sp004926. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Webb D. J., Seidelin P. H., Benjamin N., Collier J. G., Struthers A. D. Sympathetically mediated vasoconstriction is augmented by angiotensin II in man. J Hypertens Suppl. 1988 Dec;6(4):S542–S543. doi: 10.1097/00004872-198812040-00170. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Wiklund N. P., Ohlén A., Cederqvist B. Inhibition of adrenergic neuroeffector transmission by endothelin in the guinea-pig femoral artery. Acta Physiol Scand. 1988 Oct;134(2):311–312. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-1716.1988.tb08495.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Yanagisawa M., Kurihara H., Kimura S., Tomobe Y., Kobayashi M., Mitsui Y., Yazaki Y., Goto K., Masaki T. A novel potent vasoconstrictor peptide produced by vascular endothelial cells. Nature. 1988 Mar 31;332(6163):411–415. doi: 10.1038/332411a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology are provided here courtesy of British Pharmacological Society

RESOURCES