Effects of a chronic treatment by nisoldipine, a calcium antagonistic dihydropyridine, on arteries of spontaneously hypertensive rats

Earlier studies have shown that relaxation in response to several agents is impaired in arteries from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). We had previously reported that SHR aortas present a delayed relaxation when first exposed for 35 minutes to a 100 mM KCl solution and then transferred into physiological solution. The first phase of relaxation appeared similar in SHR and Wistar-Kyoto rat arteries, but the second phase was markedly slowed down in SHR arteries, giving rise to a postcontraction tone. In this study, we found that this postcontraction tone could be demonstrated not only in the aorta but also in the mesenteric artery, was independent of the presence of endothelium, increased with the age of SHR, and disappeared progressively when arterial segments were submitted to successive cycles of KCl depolarization followed by reimmersion in physiological solution. Chronic treatment of SHR with nisoldipine at doses that blocked the development of hypertension and attenuated the concomitant hypertrophy of heart and aorta, or in vitro pretreatment of SHR arteries with nisoldipine, decreased the contractile force developed by arteries in response to KCl depolarization and normalized the subsequent relaxation. [3H] (+)-PN200-110 binding studies on heart and brain homogenates indicated an increase in apparent Kd in nisoldipine-fed rats without significant change in Bmax. Binding data were compatible with the view that occupation of dihydropyridine receptors by nisoldipine after chronic oral administration was responsible for the modifications observed ex vivo in the mechanical activity of arteries. We conclude that the postcontraction tone of SHR arteries was mainly due to an abnormally prolonged activation of calcium channels after transfer of depolarized arteries into the physiological solution and that a labile or slowly releasable factor was probably involved in this phenomenon. We suggest that the antihypertensive action of nisoldipine might be related to the mechanisms involved in the suppression of the postcontraction tone as observed in vitro and that this mode of action could be more important than the vasodilating effect of this drug.