Effect of endothelial injury on the responses of isolated guinea pig pulmonary venules to reduced oxygen tension.

The influence of the endothelium on pulmonary venular responses to reduced oxygen tension has not been defined. To examine this question, endothelial injury was induced in small guinea pig pulmonary artery and venule segments (effective lumen radius, 174 +/- 5 and 122 +/- 2 microns, respectively) by perfusion with either a mixture of hypoxanthine (5 mM) and xanthine oxidase (0.05 U/ml) (HX/XO) or collagenase (2 mg/ml). HX/XO significantly (p less than 0.05) reduced the relaxation of precontracted pulmonary arteries by acetylcholine (ACH), bradykinin (BK), and A-23187, and the relaxations were restored by including superoxide dismutase (40 micrograms/ml) in the HX/XO solution. However, neither HX/XO nor collagenase affected vasodilation induced by ACH, BK, and A-23187 in precontracted pulmonary venules. In contrast, HX/XO significantly (p less than 0.05) augmented the sustained contraction of pulmonary venules to hypoxia (HX/XO, 3.2 +/- 1.0 mg/mm; control, 1.0 +/- 0.5 mg/mm) and anoxia (HX/XO, 35.1 +/- 6.6 mg/mm; control, 20.3 +/- 4.0 mg/mm). Collagenase also significantly (p less than 0.05) enhanced the anoxic contractions (collagenase, 36.0 +/- 3.7 mg/mm; control, 20.9 +/- 6.8 mg/mm). Superoxide dismutase (40 micrograms/ml) and catalase (323 micrograms/ml) abolished HX-XO-induced augmentation of the hypoxic and anoxic contractions of pulmonary venules. Collagenase removed 54 +/- 8% of the venular endothelium (control, 5 +/- 1%), whereas HX/XO-exposed endothelial cells contained numerous craters. Neither gossypol (5 microM) nor methylene blue (10 microM) affected pulmonary venular contractions to reduced PO2. Endothelial damage augments the PO2-dependent contractions of the pulmonary venule, and this augmentation does not appear to be due to decreased release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor.