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Circulation Research. 2001
Published online before print April 13, 2001, doi: 10.1161/hh0801.090441
A more recent version of this article appeared on April 27, 2001
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(Circulation Research. 2001;0:hh0801.090441.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.


Article

Evidence That Rho-Kinase Activity Contributes to Cerebral Vascular Tone In Vivo and Is Enhanced During Chronic Hypertension

Comparison With Protein Kinase C

Sophocles Chrissobolis Christopher G. Sobey

From the Department of Pharmacology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.

Correspondence to Christopher G. Sobey, PhD, Department of Pharmacology, The University of Melbourne, Grattan St, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia. E-mail cgsobey{at}unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

Abstract—The small G protein Rho and its target Rho-kinase may participate in the mechanisms underlying vascular contractile tone via inhibition of myosin light chain phosphatase. The present study has tested the hypothesis that Rho-kinase activity normally contributes to cerebral vascular tone in vivo, and that this effect is augmented during chronic hypertension. Comparative studies also examined the role of protein kinase C (PKC) in regulation of cerebral artery tone. Two Rho-kinase inhibitors, Y-27632 (0.1 to 100 µmol/L) and HA1077 (1 to 10 µmol/L), caused marked concentration-dependent increases in basilar artery diameter of anesthetized normotensive rats (Sprague-Dawley and Wistar-Kyoto [WKY] strains), as measured using a cranial window approach. By comparison, the selective PKC inhibitors calphostin C (0.01 to 0.5 µmol/L) and Ro 31-8220 (5 µmol/L) had little or no effect on basilar artery diameter. Vasodilator responses to Y-27632 were unaffected by PKC inhibition or activation. In two models of chronic hypertension (spontaneously hypertensive rats and WKY rats treated with N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester for 4 weeks), Y-27632 elicited cerebral vasodilator responses that were significantly greater than in control WKY rats (P<0.05), indicating that the chronically hypertensive state and not genetic factors contributed to the increased responses to Rho-kinase inhibition. PKC inhibition had no significant effect on basilar artery diameter in chronically hypertensive rats. These data suggest that Rho-kinase, but not PKC, activity contributes substantially to cerebral artery tone in vivo, and this effect is augmented in the cerebral circulation during chronic hypertension.


Key Words: cerebral artery • hypertension • protein kinase C • Rho-kinase




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