Abstract

Beta-Adrenergic relaxation in bovine coronary arteries is enhanced by inhibition of eicosonoid metabolism and inhibited by its stimulation. We investigated the interaction between eicosonoid metabolism and beta-adrenergic mechanisms by studying the effect of perturbations of eicosonoid metabolism on vascular adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) content and the cAMP-dependent relaxation of isometric force and activation of glycogen phosphorylase. KCl (35 mM) elicited a contraction, activated phosphorylase, and slightly decreased cAMP content. Isoproterenol (10(-7) M) relaxed the KCl contraction, further increased phosphorylase activity, and increased cAMP. Neither indomethacin (5 X 10(-6) M) nor arachidonic acid (3 X 10(-5) M) affected the KCl contraction, but arachidonic acid increased both cAMP and phosphorylase activity and indomethacin decreased cAMP. Indomethacin potentiated the relaxation induced by isoproterenol but inhibited the activation of phosphorylase and had no effect on the isoproterenol-induced increase in cAMP. Arachidonic acid, on the other hand, inhibited the isoproterenol-induced relaxation but potentiated both the increases of phosphorylase activity and cAMP. Thus neither relaxation nor phosphorylase activity was related in a straightforward manner to the total cAMP content. A direct relation between cAMP, relaxation, and phosphorylase can be reconciled with the antiparallel effects of alterations of eicosonoid metabolism observed in this study by a proposed model in which the effects of cAMP are assumed to be functionally compartmentalized.