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. 1999 Feb 2;96(3):1123–1128. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.3.1123

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Determination of NO produced in response to isometric contraction of aortic rings. The intracellular cGMP content was assessed in IBMX-pretreated cultured vascular smooth muscle cells stimulated with the superfusate from aortic rings. cGMP was assessed after the application of 1 μM ACh to (1 μM) phenylephrine-contracted rings (A), after the return to basal tone after washout (B), during the initial (C) and plateau (D) phases of the isometric contraction induced by 20 nM phenylephrine resulting in a contraction ≈30% of the maximum, and after the application of 100 μM l-NA (E) as indicated in the upper panel (open bars). In a separate series of experiments, endothelial NO release was determined as described above (hatched bars), but 30 μM erbstatin A was added after washout of ACh (between time points B and C; filled columns). Results are presented as the increase in cGMP (pmol of cGMP per mg of smooth muscle cell protein) content above basal values, and the data are expressed as the mean ± SEM of six separate experiments. ∗, P < 0.05.