Submitted on March 8, 2006
Accepted on February 12, 2007
The role of cADPR in sodium nitroprusside-induced opossum esophageal longitudinal smooth muscle contraction
Ryan K Campbell1, Ronald W Wells1, David V Miller1, and William G Paterson1*
1 Medicine, Biology and Physiology, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: patersow{at}hdh.kari.net.
Nitric Oxide (NO) relaxes most smooth muscle, including the circular smooth muscle (CSM) of the esophagus, whereas in the adjacent longitudinal smooth muscle (LSM), it causes contraction. The second messenger pathways responsible for this NO-induced LSM contraction are unclear, given that these opposing effects of NO are both cGMP-dependent. In intestinal LSM, but not CSM, cADPR-dependent pathways participate in Ca2+ mobilization and muscle contraction; whether similar differences exist in the esophagus is unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether cADPR plays a role in the NO-mediated contraction of opossum esophageal LSM. Standard isometric tension recordings were performed using both LSM and CSM strips from opossum distal esophagus and hung in 10 ml tissue baths perfused with oxygenated Kreb's solution. cADPR produced concentration-dependent contraction of LSM strips with an EC50 of 1nM and peak contraction of 57 ± 18 % of the 60 mM KCl-induced contraction. cADPR had no effect on CSM strips at concentrations up to 10-6 M. The EC50 of cADPR caused contraction (18 ± 2 % from initial resting length) of isolated LSM cells. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP; 300 µM) induced contraction of LSM strips that averaged 67 ± 5% of the KCl response. cADPR antagonists 8-bromo-cADPR and 8-amino-cADPR, and ryanodine receptor antagonists ryanodine and tetracaine significantly inhibited the SNP-induced contraction. In conclusion, in the opossum esophagus: 1) cADPR induces contraction of LSM, but not CSM; 2) NO-induced contraction of LSM appears to involve a cADPR-dependent pathway.
