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Vasoconstrictive effects of endothelin-1, endothelin-3, and urotensin II in isolated perfused human lungs and isolated human pulmonary arteries

¹ Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Castle Hill Hospital, Hull & East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Cottingham, UK
² Hormone and Vascular Biology Group, Academic Unit of Endocrinology, Division of Genomic Medicine, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
³ Section of Respiratory Medicine, Division of Academic Medicine, The University of Hull, Hull, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr R D Jones
Hormone and Vascular Biology Group, Academic Unit of Endocrinology, Division of Genomic Medicine, The Medical School, Sheffield S10 2RX, UK; r.d.jones{at}sheffield.ac.uk

Background: Urotensin II (UII) has been identified as a ligand for the orphan receptor GPR14 through which it elicits potent vasoconstriction in humans and non-human primates. The pulmonary vasculature is particularly sensitive; human UII (hUII) exhibits a potency 28 times that of endothelin (ET)-1 in isolated pulmonary arteries obtained from cynomolgus monkeys. However, hUII induced vasoconstriction in isolated human intralobar pulmonary arteries is variable, possibly as a result of location dependent differences in receptor density or because it is only uncovered by disease dependent endothelial dysfunction.

Methods: The vasoactivity of both hUII and gobi UII (gUII) in comparison with ET-1 and ET-3 was studied in isolated perfused lung preparations (n = 14) and isolated intralobar pulmonary arteries (n = 40, mean diameter 548 (27) µm) obtained from 17 men of mean (SE) age 67 (2) years and eight women of mean (SE) age 65 (3) years with a variety of vascular diseases.

Results: ET-1 (10 pM–100 nM) and ET-3 (10 pM–30 nM) elicited vasoconstriction in the lung preparations, inducing comparable increases in pulmonary arterial pressure of 24.8 (4.5) mm Hg and 14.5 (4.9) mm Hg, respectively, at 30 nM (p = 0.13). Similarly, ET-1 (10 pM–300 nM) and ET-3 (10 pM–100 nM) caused marked vasoconstriction in isolated pulmonary arteries, inducing maximal changes in tension of 4.36 (0.26) mN/mm and 1.54 (0.44) mN/mm, respectively, generating –logEC₅₀ values of 7.67 (0.04) M and 8.08 (0.07) M, respectively (both p<0.05). However, neither hUII nor gUII (both 10 pM–1 µM) had any vasoactive effect in either preparation.

Conclusion: UII does not induce vasoconstriction in isolated human pulmonary arterial or lung preparations and is therefore unlikely to be involved in the control of pulmonary vascular tone.

Keywords: urotensin II; endothelin; pulmonary vasculature

Abbreviations: ET, endothelin; gUII, goby urotensin II; hUII, human urotensin II; UII, urotensin II

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