Ga. Rae et al., BIG-ENDOTHELIN-1 CONTRACTS RAT ISOLATED UTERUS VIA A PHOSPHORAMIDON-SENSITIVE ENDOTHELIN-ET(A) RECEPTOR-MEDIATED MECHANISM, European journal of pharmacology, 240(2-3), 1993, pp. 113-119
The presence of a phosphoramidon-sensitive endothelin-1-converting enz
yme was investigated in the rat isolated uterus. Endothelin-1 and its
precursor, big-endothelin-1, increased the rate of spontaneous contrac
tions and caused tonic contractions. Responses to big-endothelin-1 had
a slower start than those to endothelin-1. The tonic contraction indu
ced by big-endothelin-1 (10 nM) was nearly abolished by phosphoramidon
(100 muM), but the response to an equieffective concentration of endo
thelin-1 (3 nM) was not affected. Big-endothelin-1 (EC50 6.7 nM) was o
nly 7-fold less potent than endothelin-1 (EC50 0.9 nM), whereas endoth
elin-3 was much less potent (EC50 > 100 nM). The endothelin ET(A) rece
ptor antagonist, BQ-123 (40, 150 and 600 nM), induced graded rightward
shifts of the concentration-response curve for endothelin-1. Schild a
nalysis yielded a straight line with a slope not different from unity,
and a pA2 value of 7.76. At 100 nM, BQ-123 specifically blocked respo
nses to both endothelin-1 (3 nM) and big-endothelin-1 (10 nM), without
modifying those to oxytocin (5 nM), acetylcholine (3 muM) or bradykin
in (0.5 nM). Our results suggest the presence of phosphoramidon-sensit
ive endothelin-converting enzyme and demonstrate the occurrence of fun
ctional endothelin ET(A) receptors in the rat uterus.