Conduction of vasomotor responses in arterioles: a role for cell-to-cell coupling?

Vasomotor responses of arterioles triggered by the iontophoretic application of acetylcholine (ACh) or norepinephrine (NE) are conducted along the vessel wall. The present experiments focus on elucidating the mechanism of conduction in arterioles of the superfused cheek pouch preparation in pentobarbital-anesthetized hamsters. Localized muscarinic or adrenergic receptor blockade on an arteriolar segment produced by atropine or phentolamine, respectively, did not affect propagation through the region of blockade but did block vasomotor responses to ACh or NE applied to the segment. Thus muscarinic and alpha-adrenergic receptors can trigger the propagation of vasomotor responses, but these receptors are not involved in their conduction. Tetrodotoxin did not affect either local or propagated responses to ACh or NE. Treatment of arteriolar segments with calcium antagonists (verapamil, diltiazem, nifedipine, or manganese) caused maximal dilation locally but did not affect propagation through the dilated region. The preceding findings argue against a neural pathway for propagation. A depolarizing solution (137 mM KCl) applied by micropipette to arteriolar segments caused both local and propagated vasoconstriction and significantly attenuated propagated vasodilation induced with ACh (P less than 0.05). Putative antagonists of gap-junctional communication (hypertonic sucrose solution, octanol, CO2) reversibly attenuated or abolished propagated responses. We hypothesize that propagation of vasomotor responses along arterioles is initiated via a local change in membrane potential secondary to receptor occupation and that changes in potential spread electrotonically through gap junctions coupling smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, or both.