Endothelium-Derived Relaxing Factor: Discovery, Early Studies, and Identifcation as Nitric Oxide (Nobel Lecture)

✍ Scribed by Robert F. Furchgott

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 188 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1521-3773(19990712)38:13/14<1870::aid-anie1870>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

The obligatory role of endothelial cells in the relaxation of arterial smooth muscle is clearly shown with organ-chamber experiments. Two preparations, a transverse ring and a helical strip from the same rabbit thoracic aorta, were incubated in an organ bath and contracted with noradrenaline (NE).

Addition of the vasodilator acetylcholine (ACh) results in relaxation of the smooth muscle cells (left-hand side of the picture). If the endothelial cells are removed mechanically (by rubbing) or enzymatically (by exposure to collagenase), the relaxing response is eliminated (right-hand side of the picture). After washout (W) of NE and ACh, the muscle relaxes again.