Fig. 11.

Influence of early postnatal maturation and intrauterine chronic hypoxia on bradykinin-induced vasorelaxation in fetal and newborn pulmonary vessels. Schematic provides an overview of the findings of the current studies. Data indicate that postnatal chronic hypoxia has an interactive influence on normal development of bradykinin-induced vasorelaxation, with development that involves modification to the function of the endothelium (above horizontal hashed line) and smooth muscle (below horizontal hashed line). Influence of developmental age is shown at the left of each pathway step; effect of chronic hypoxia on the fetus (F) and newborn (N) are shown at the right. Pathways are depicted as a coupled sequence (straight lines) or through a multistep process (dashed lines), where intermediate pathway steps were not evaluated. sGC, soluble guanylate cyclase; RyR, ryanodine receptor (see Ref. 37).