Tolerance and cross-tolerance between SIN-1 and nitric oxide in bovine coronary arteries

The molecular mechanism of tolerance development to nitrovasodilators, most prominent with nitroglycerin, associated with desensitization of guanylate cyclase is still unclear. Nitric oxide (NO) appears to be the common denominator of this group of drugs that leads to guanylate cyclase activation, followed by increases in levels of cyclic GMP and relaxation. It was therefore decided to study whether NO itself, which causes some tolerance, interferes with the actions of (a) SIN-1 and sodium nitroprusside, both of which are thought to act directly by NO formation, which explains why they cause little tolerance; and (b) with the actions of nitroglycerin, which stimulates cyclic GMP formation only in the presence of cysteine and causes pronounced (large) tolerance. Experiments were performed in circular strips of isolated de-endothelialized bovine coronary artery by measuring isotonic changes in length and cyclic GMP determined by radioimmunoassay. When the strips were treated with submaximal effective concentrations of NO, some tolerance was observed, as shown by moderate attenuation of the rises in cyclic GMP, and a rightward shift of the dose-response curve of the relaxing effects by a dose factor of 10 (DF = 10). Exposure to nitroglycerin, SIN-1, or sodium nitroprusside rendered the strips cross-tolerant to NO to a comparable extent as NO itself, suggesting that under these conditions the NO component of all of these drugs that caused similar tolerance is displayed. When the strips were treated with NO and subsequently challenged with nitroglycerin, SIN-1, or sodium nitroprusside, the NO cross-tolerance was uniformly lower than the tolerance to the challenging agent.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)