CALCIUM DEPENDENCE OF FLOW-INDUCED DILATION - COOPERATIVE INTERACTION WITH SODIUM

The effect of changing extracellular calcium and sodium concentrations on flow, acetylcholine, and papaverine vasodilation and also on norepinephrine contraction was studied in a segment of a resistance branch of the rabbit central ear artery mounted in a myograph. Decreases in calcium to 80% of the normal physiological saline solution concentration (1.6 mM) reduced both flow- and acetylcholine-induced dilation. Increases of calcium to 120%, 140%, and 200% of normal decreased flow dilation responses, but not those to acetylcholine and papaverine. Thus, the optimum calcium concentration for flow dilation lies within the range of 1.4-1.9 mM. The concomitant proportionate reduction of sodium and calcium offsets the reduction in How dilation that occurred with reduction in calcium alone. This was true whether sodium and calcium were reduced simultaneously or whether the effect of lowered sodium and then that of lowered sodium and calcium was studied. Emphasizing the uniqueness of this interaction between sodium and calcium are the observations that the depression of acetylcholine dilation by calcium reduction was not influenced by a concurrent reduction in sodium and that the depression of flow dilation caused by sodium reduction is increased by calcium increase, which by itself depresses flow dilation. None of these changes in sodium and calcium alters the responses of the artery segment to papaverine or norepinephrine. We propose that these interactions of sodium and calcium in relation to flow dilation may reflect the binding properties for sodium and calcium of a proposed flow sensor, the glycosaminoglycan polyanions. These results raise the possibility that vascular tone may be influenced not only by the absolute but by the relative concentrations of sodium and calcium.