AJP - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Vol 266, Issue 3 898-H902, Copyright © 1994 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Inhibitory effect of interleukin-6 on vascular smooth muscle contraction

F. Ohkawa, U. Ikeda, K. Kawasaki, E. Kusano, M. Igarashi and K. Shimada
Department of Community and Family Medicine, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi, Japan.

Our objective was to investigate the direct effect of interleukin-6 (IL-6) on the vascular smooth muscle contraction. We measured the contraction of endothelium-denuded aortic rings isolated from Sprague-Dawley rats. We also investigated the involvement of vasodilator prostaglandin and guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) productions in the effect of IL-6 using cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). Exposing the aortic rings to recombinant murine IL-6 (50 U/ml) for 180 min significantly suppressed the phenylephrine (10(-9)-10(-5) M)-induced contraction. This inhibitory effect of IL-6 on the contraction tended to exhibit a dose-dependent relationship (0.5-50 U/ml). The effect of IL-6 was totally eliminated in the presence of indomethacin (10(-5) M). The release of immunoreactive 6-ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha from cultured rat VSMC was significantly increased by exposure to IL-6. Intracellular cGMP concentration in VSMC was not affected by IL-6. In conclusion, IL-6 is a potent inhibitor of the alpha-adrenergic-stimulated contraction of vascular smooth muscle. Its action is endothelium independent and mediated by the increased synthesis of prostacyclin in VSMC.

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