Abstract: | Cholinergic contractile reactions of smooth muscles in rabbit pulmonary arteries were studied by mechanography. The muscarinic receptor agonist pilocarpine induced biphasic relaxation of mesatone- or potassium-precontracted segments from lobar pulmonary arteries with intact endothelium. The low-threshold endothelium-dependent component of pilocarpine-induced relaxation was suppressed by denudation or nitric oxide synthase blocker L-NAME. Translated fromByulleten’ Eksperimental’noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 130, No. 8, pp. 134–136, August, 2000 |