Characterization of endothelin receptor subtypes on airway smooth muscle cells

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) has constrictor and mitogenic effects on airway smooth muscle strips and cultured cells, respectively. This study addresses the type of the ET receptor subtype(s) present on ovine airway smooth muscle cells and the possibility of autocrine effects. The expression of the preproendothelin-1 gene was demonstrated by Northern analysis, and the medium obtained from these cells contained immunoreactive-ET-1. Competitive binding experiments between [125I]ET-1 and ET-1, ET-3, and two ET-receptor subtype selective-ligands, BQ-123 (ETA) and sarafotoxin S6c (ETB), yielded IC50 values of 1.1 +/- 0.1, 227 +/- 13, 12 +/- 1, and 194 +/- 21 nM, respectively. ET-3 also gave a limited number of higher affinity sites. In the presence of BQ-123 (1 microM), the binding of [125I]ET-1 was decreased by 80-85%, and the IC50 values with ET-1, ET-3, and S6c were 2.0 +/- 0.4, 3.6 +/- 0.6, and 1.1 +/- 0.9 nM, respectively. In similar experiments with 0.1 microM sarafotoxin S6c, the respective IC50 values for ET-1 and ET-3 were 2.4 +/- 0.4 and 300 +/- 20 nM. These results demonstrate that about 85 +/- 5% of ET-1 binding to airway smooth muscle cells is to ETA receptors and that these cells produce ET-1 in vitro.