Involvement of nitric oxide in endothelium-dependent, phasic relaxation caused by histamine in monkey cerebral arteries.

Monkey cerebral artery strips partially contracted with prostaglandin F2 alpha responded to histamine with biphasic patterns of relaxation. The delayed and sustained relaxation was suppressed by cimetidine, whereas the phasic response was abolished by treatment with chlorpheniramine and NG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NA), a nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibitor. The inhibition by L-NA was reversed by L-arginine. D-NA was without effect. Endothelium denudation abolished the phasic relaxation. We hypothesized that endothelium-dependent, phasic relaxations caused by histamine are mediated by NO that is released by H1-receptor stimulation, whereas the sustained relaxation is associated with the activation of H2-receptors in the smooth muscle of monkey cerebral arteries.