Hidenori KANDA

Exposure to chronic hypoxic conditions causes various gastric diseases, including gastric ulcers. It has been suggested that gastric smooth muscle contraction is associated with aerobic metabolism. However, there are no reports on the association between gastric smooth muscle contraction and aerobic metabolism, and we have investigated this association in the present study. High K+ - and carbachol (CCh-induced muscle contractions involved increasing O2 consumption. Aeration with N2 (hypoxia and NaCN significantly decreased high K+ - and CCh-induced muscle contraction and O2 consumption. In addition, hypoxia and NaCN significantly decreased creatine phosphate (PCr contents in the presence of high K+. Moreover, decrease in CCh-induced contraction and O2 consumption was greater than that of high K+. Our results suggest that hypoxia and NaCN inhibit high K+ - and CCh-induced contractions in gastric fundus smooth muscles by decreasing O2 consumption and intracellular PCr content. However, the inhibition of CCh-induced muscle contraction was greater than that of high K+ -induced muscle contraction.

The mechanism of imidazole-induced contraction on the bovine tracheal smooth muscle was investigated. Imidazole induced muscle contraction in a concentration-dependent manner on bovine, porcine and guinea-pig tracheas, but not in rat or mouse. In bovine tracheas, imidazole was cumulatively applied and induced muscle tension and increasesd intracellular Ca2+ level in a concentration -dependent manner. Imidazole, even at 300 μM, the concentration at which maximum contractile response occurs, did not significantly increase in cAMP content relative to control. Atropine inhibited imidazole-induced contraction at a concentrationdependent manner and pretreatment of hemicholinium-3 almost abolished imidazole-induced contraction. Conversely, pretreatment of tripelennamine, indomethacin or tetrodotoxin did not affect imidazole-induced contraction. Acetylcholine or eserine induced contraction in bovine, porcine, guinea pig, rat and mice trachea in a concentration-dependent manner. However, there was little difference in the rank order of maximum contraction of these agents. Imidazole-induced contraction was greater in bovine trachea compared to the other species tested. Further, cAMP did not appear to play a role in imidazole-induced contraction, suggesting other mechanisms, such as the release of endogenous acetylcholine.

Recent studies have shown that phloridzin, an inhibitor of sodium glucose cotransporter (SGLT), strongly decreases high K+-induced contraction in phasic muscle, such as tenia coil, but slightly affects tonic muscle, such as trachea. In this study, we examined the inhibitory mechanism of phloridzin on high K+-induced muscle contraction in rat ileum, a phasic muscle. Phloridzin inhibited the high K+-induced contraction in the ileum and the aorta, and the relaxing effect of phloridzin at 1 mM in the ileum was approximately five-fold more potent than that in the aorta. The expression of SGLT1 mRNA in the ileum was higher than that of the aorta. Phloridzin significantly inhibited NADH/NAD ratio and phosphocreatine (PCr) content in the ileum; I however, application of pyruvate recovered the inhibition of contraction and PCr content, but had no effect on ratio of NADH/NAD. High K+ increased 2-(N (7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl) amino)-2-deoxyglucose (2-NBDG) uptake in ileal smooth muscle cells, and phloridzin inhibited the increase in a concentration-dependent manner. These results suggest that phloridzin inhibits high K+-induced contraction because of the inhibition of energy metabolism via the inhibition of SGLT1.

Eyes are supplied O-2 through the cornea and vessels of the retina and iris, which are tissues characterized by aerobic metabolism. Meanwhile, there are no reports on the association between iris sphincter contraction and aerobic metabolism. In this paper, we studied the aforementioned association. Eyes from adult pigs of either sex were obtained from a local abattoir. A muscle strip was connected to a transducer to isometrically record the tension. O-2 consumption was measured using a Clark-type polarograph connected to a biological oxygen monitor. Creatine phosphate (PCr) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) contents were measured in the muscle strips by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Iris sphincter muscles were measured in resting, contractile or hypoxic phases. Contraction was induced by hyperosmotic 65 mM KCl (H-65K(+)) or carbachol (CCh), and hypoxia was induced by aeration with N-2 instead of O-2 or by addition of sodium cyanide (NaCN). H-65K(+)- and CCh-induced muscle contraction, involved increasing O-2 consumption. Hypoxia and NaCN significantly decreased H-65K(+)- and CCh-induced muscle contraction and/or O-2 consumption and PCr contents. Our results suggest that the contractile behavior in porcine iris sphincter highly depends on mitogen oxidative metabolism.