The non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic response counteracts changes in guinea-pig airway tone with and without...

1. We examined whether the non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic (NANC) neural response can counteract changes in smooth-muscle tone with and without simultaneous sympathetic activation in guinea-pig airways. 2. Isolated airway preparations were pretreated with indomethacin (10 microM) and incubated with either atropine (1 microM) and guanethidine (10 microM) or atropine (1 microM) alone. The response to electrical field stimulation (EFS: 1200 mA, 0.5 ms, 3 Hz for 240 s) was studied at various levels of tone prior to EFS: first without induced tone, then at a moderate tone induced by histamine (0.3 microM) and finally at a high tone induced by histamine (6 microM). 3. The response to EFS was a contraction when the tone prior to EFS was low and a relaxation when the tone prior to EFS was high. These responses converged towards a similar level of tone, in the distal trachea and in the main bronchus, with and without guanethidine. 4. The mean (s.e. mean) level of tone towards which the responses to EFS converged was lower after incubation with atropine alone compared with incubation with atropine and guanethidine, both in the distal trachea [8 (1)% compared with 30 (6)% of maximum tone] and in the main bronchus [28 (4)% compared with 57 (2)% of maximum tone]. In separate experiments, the guanethidine-induced effect on the responses to EFS was imitated by propranolol (1 microM) but not by prazosin (0.3 microM) and yohimbine (1 microM). 5. These findings indicate that the NANC neural response can counteract changes in airway smooth-muscle tone via a contraction or via a relaxation, depending on the tone prior to activation.This stabilizing effect on tone does not appear to depend upon adrenergic activation per se. The level of tone towards which the NANC responses converge can, however, be reduced by beta-adrenoceptor activation, thus suggesting an interaction which provides protection from severe airway smooth-muscle contraction.