The regulation of airway caliber is important for supporting the physiological respiratory function and is con sidered to be mainly controlled by the central and peripheral nervous systems. In the present review, we discussed the resting tonus of the isolated airway smooth muscle of the guinea pig and compared it with that of the human; the former is similar to the latter because both are well-developed in the airway and well-responsive to a variety of mediators. The resting tonus of the isolated guinea pig trachea is largely decreased by indomethacin, a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, while that of the isolated human bronchus is increased following transient decrease by indomethacin. Furthermore, the human bronchus is markedly decreased by not only a selective peptide leukotriene antagonist, MCI-826, but also 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors, AA 861 and cirsiliol. These results indicate that contractile prostanoid(s) and peptide leukotrienes are possible mediators for the maintaining the resting tonus of the respective preparations. Both preparations still have a small but substantial part of the resting tonus resistant to these drugs, the mediator(s) responsible for which is not clarified yet. In short, arachidonate metabolites are major candidates for the resting tonus of either isolated guinea pig or human airway smooth muscle and may contribute to at least a part of the regulation of the airway caliber as autacoids in vivo.
