AIM: To study the effect of repeated systemic injections
of elcatonin (a synthetic analog of eel calcitonin) on the
responses of rat femoral artery preparation to vasoactive
drugs and to determine subtypes of muscarinic
cholinoceptors involved in acetylcholine ( ACh )-induced
vasorelaxation in elcatonin-treated rats. METHODS:
Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were treated sc
with elcatonin, 0.5 and 5 U/kg, 3 times a week for 2
weeks. Responses to vasoactive drugs were determined
in helically cut strips of femoral arteries of these rats.
Schild plot data for muscarinic cholinoceptor antagonists
were obtained on these vascular strips, using ACh as an
agonist. RESULTS: Elcatonin did not alter systemic
blood pressure and contractile responses of the femoral
artery to KCl, norepinephrine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, and
prostaglandin F2α. Elcatonin attenuated isoproterenol
induced relaxation, increased ACh- and ATP-induced
relaxations, and did not change relaxant responses to
sodium nitroprusside and cromakalim in the femoral
artery. Nitro L-arginine in the combination with tetrae
thylammonium ( or charybdotoxin) completely abolished
the relaxant response to ACh in the control but not in the
elcatonin-treated arteries. The muscarinic cholinoceptor
subtype involved in the ACh-induced relaxation was Ma in
the elcatonin-treated as well as control SHR. CON
CLUSION: Elcatonin decreases β-adrenoeeptor-mediated
relaxation and increases M3 cholinoceptor-mediated relax
ation in the SHR femoral artery. Although the ACh
induced relaxation is explained by stimulated releases of
nitric oxide (NO) and endothelium-derived hyperpolariz
ing factor (EDHF) in the SHR artery, a NO- and EDHF
independent mechanism in addition to NO and EDHF is
responsible for the response to ACh in the femoral artery
from the elcatonin-treated SHR.