Dilatory effect of furosemide on rat tracheal arterioles and venules

Furosemide pretreatment greatly reduces the severity of an asthmatic response to several types of bronchoconstrictor challenge. Indirect evidence suggests that furosemide exerts its protective effects by dilating the airway vasculature during thermal stress. To test the hypothesis that furosemide dilates airway microvessels, the tracheas of anesthetized rats were surgically exposed and continuously suffused with Krebs Ringer bicarbonate warmed to 37 degrees C. Tracheal adventitial arterioles (13.0 to 41.0 microns initial diameter, n = 47) and venules (50.0 to 99.0 microns initial diameter, n = 46) were visualized with a videomicroscope, and vessel diameters were measured using videocalipers. When vessels were preconstricted with 10(-4) M phenylephrine, a selective alpha 1-adrenergic agonist, and then treated with 10(-4) M furosemide, significant (p < 0.05) dilation was observed in both arterioles (from 64.6 to 79.5% of their initial diameter) and venules (from 52.1 to 65.4% of their initial diameter). When vessels were preconstricted with 10(-4) phenylephrine, after pretreatment with the cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin (5.0 mg/kg), 10(-4) M furosemide significantly dilated arterioles (from 77.5 to 93.0% of their initial diameter) and venules (from 58.5 to 80.1% of their initial diameter). In vessels preconstricted with 10(-3) M L-NAME, an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthesis, addition of 10(-4) M furosemide to the suffusion still caused significant dilation in arterioles, from 77.4 to 88.8% of their initial diameter, and in venules from 79.5 to 86.7% of their initial diameter. These data confirm that furosemide, when applied topically, dilates tracheal arterioles and venules by cyclooxygenase- and nitric oxide-independent mechanisms.