Abstract
Electrical transmural stimulation of isolated iris dilator muscle of the rabbit produced a transient contraction that consisted of adrenergic and nonadrenergic components. In contrast to the adrenergic component, the nonadrenergic component was resistant to prazosin and other adrenoceptor antagonists. However, both components were completely blocked by guanethidine or tetrodotoxin. Among some tested compounds including neuropeptide Y, both ATP and 2-methylthio ATP produced a transient contraction in the dilator muscle and the sustained treatment with each markedly attenuated the nonadrenergic responses to electrical stimulation and to ATP. Suramin had no effect on and α, β-methylene ATP potentiated the responses to electrical stimulation and to ATP. These results suggest that the nonadrenergic contraction induced by electrical transmural stimulation is a sympathetic purinergic response that may be mediated through unique purinoceptors.
