Contractions Induced in Human Pulmonary Arteries by a H<sub>2</sub>S Donor, GYY 4137, Are Inhibited by Low-Frequency (20 kHz) Ultrasound
Agilė Tunaitytė,
Silvijus Abramavičius,
Augusta Volkevičiūtė,
Mantas Venslauskas,
Algimantas Bubulis,
Vytis Bajoriūnas,
Ulf Simonsen,
Vytautas Ostaševičius,
Vytautas Jūrėnas,
Kasparas Briedis,
Edgaras Stankevičius
Affiliations
Agilė Tunaitytė
Preclinical Research Laboratory for Medicinal Products, Institute of Cardiology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Ave. 13, 50166 Kaunas, Lithuania
Silvijus Abramavičius
Preclinical Research Laboratory for Medicinal Products, Institute of Cardiology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Ave. 13, 50166 Kaunas, Lithuania
Augusta Volkevičiūtė
Preclinical Research Laboratory for Medicinal Products, Institute of Cardiology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Ave. 13, 50166 Kaunas, Lithuania
Mantas Venslauskas
Institute of Mechatronics, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu st. 56, 51424 Kaunas, Lithuania
Algimantas Bubulis
Institute of Mechatronics, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu st. 56, 51424 Kaunas, Lithuania
Vytis Bajoriūnas
Preclinical Research Laboratory for Medicinal Products, Institute of Cardiology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Ave. 13, 50166 Kaunas, Lithuania
Ulf Simonsen
Department of Biomedicine, Pulmonary and Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Aarhus University, Ole Worms Allé 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
Vytautas Ostaševičius
Institute of Mechatronics, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu st. 56, 51424 Kaunas, Lithuania
Vytautas Jūrėnas
Institute of Mechatronics, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu st. 56, 51424 Kaunas, Lithuania
Kasparas Briedis
Institute of Cardiology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Ave. 15, 50166 Kaunas, Lithuania
Edgaras Stankevičius
Preclinical Research Laboratory for Medicinal Products, Institute of Cardiology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Sukileliu Ave. 13, 50166 Kaunas, Lithuania
The present study aimed to investigate the effect of a H2S donor, GYY 4137, on human pulmonary arteries and whether low-frequency ultrasound (20 kHz, 4 W/cm2) inhibits GYY 4137 contractions. Functional studies were conducted on human and rat pulmonary arteries mounted on microvascular myographs. We placed an ultrasonic gadget in the tissue organ bath to insonate the arteries with low-frequency ultrasound. To measure the effect of the low-frequency ultrasound on the entrance of extracellular Ca2+, the preparations were placed in a Ca2+-free solution, and the thromboxane agonist, U46619, and extracellular calcium were added in the presence of insonation. In isolated human pulmonary arteries, GYY 4137 induced contractions, which were most pronounced in the arteries contracted with the thromboxane analogue, U46619. The transient GYY4137 contractions were reversed by low-frequency ultrasound, a blocker of KV7 channels, XE-991 (10 µM), and glibenclamide (1 μM), a blocker of ATP-sensitive channels. Low-frequency ultrasound also inhibited the contractions induced by the smooth muscle entrance of increasing extracellular calcium concentrations. The present findings show that GYY 4137 can cause a transient contraction of pulmonary arteries in human arteries. GYY 4137 alone does not cause significant vascular contraction in rat lung arteries, but it contracts rat lung arteries precontracted with U46619. The transient contractions induced by GYY 4137 can be inhibited by low-frequency ultrasound, probably by counteracting the influx of external Ca2+. The effect of low-frequency ultrasound counteracts contraction in pulmonary arteries; therefore, a possibility could be to develop a larger device allowing treatment of patients with pulmonary hypertension.
