Effects of acute and chronic estrogenic treatment on vasomotor responses of aortic rings from ovariectomized rats

The effects of either chronic or acute estrogenic treatment on the “in vitro” vasomotor responses to phenylephrine (10 −9-10 −5M) and to carbachol (10 −9-10 −5M) of aortic rings excised from ovariectomized rats were analyzed Chronic estrogenic treatment consisted in a single subcutaneous dose of 1 μmol estradiol 17-stearate. Effects of acute estrogenic treatment were evaluated by recording the responses of aortic rings excised from untreated ovariectomized rats both before and after the addition of 17β-estradiol to the superfusing solutions. In order to identify the endothelium-dependent responses each experiment was performed simultaneously on pairs of rings from the same aorta, one with and the other without functional endothelium. The contractile responses to phenylephrine of endothelium-intact vessels were attenuated by chronic estrogenic treatment; this attenuation was further increased by preincubation of the vessels with indomethacin and was reverted by Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester. Either chronic or acute estrogenic treatment enhanced the carbachol-induced endothelium dependent relaxation of phenylephrine-precontracted rings. The results may be explained by assuming that estrogens increase the basal release of both nitric oxide and a cyclooxygenase-dependent vasoconstricting prostanoid as well as the receptor-mediated release of nitric oxide from the endothelium of the rat aorta.