The receptors mediating arterial smooth muscle contraction to endothelins (ET) differ among species and origin of vascular bed. We characterized ET receptors mediating contraction of endothelium-denuded human intralobar pulmonary artery (hIPA) and rat intralobar (rIPA) and extralobar left branch (rLPA) pulmonary artery with ET-1, ET-2, ET-3, sarafotoxin S6c, sarafotoxin S6b, and ET receptor antagonists in vitro. Rat aorta was studied for comparison. Each vascular segment showed concentration-dependent contraction with a rank order sensitivity (pot) profile of ET-1 greater than or equal to ET-2 = sarafotoxin S6b > ET-3. Maximum contraction to ET-1 was greater than to sarafotoxin S6c in all preparations. Responses of rIPA and rLPA to sarafotoxin S6c were conspicuous when compared with hIPA or aorta. The ETA receptor blockers BQ-123 and EMS-182874 competitively antagonized ET-1 responses of hIPA and aorta, but not rLPA. The ETB receptor antagonist BQ-788 attenuated contractions of rIPA and rLPA to ET-3 and sarafotoxin S6c, respectively. In conclusion, ET(B)-mediated contraction of endothelium-denuded conduit pulmonary arteries varies among species and may contribute more to contraction of rIPA and rLPA than of hIPA and aorta, although maximum ETB-mediated contraction is smaller than that mediated by the ETA receptor.
