Fig. 9.

Influence of long-term hypoxia (LTH) on bradykinin-induced vasorelaxation in adult pulmonary vessels. The schematic provides an overview of the findings of the current studies on adult arteries. The data indicate that LTH has a significant influence on bradykinin-induced vasorelaxation involving modification to the function of both the endothelium (above the broken line) and smooth muscle (below the broken line). The influence of LTH is shown on the right side of each pathway step. These observed changes are codified as functional increases (green circles, “+”), decreases (red circles, “−”), or no changes (open circles, “N”). Pathways are depicted as either a coupled sequence (straight lines) or through a multistep process (broken lines), where intermediate pathway steps were not evaluated. BK_Ca, large-conductance voltage- and Ca²⁺-sensitive K⁺ channel; RyR, ryanodine receptor; sGC, soluble guanylate cyclase.