Mechanisms of intrinsic tone in ferret vascular smooth muscle.

1. Circular strips from ferret aorta were used to investigate the mechanism of the intrinsic basal tone. 2. Determinations of stiffness using small sinusoidal length changes showed an abolition of both stiffness and force with cooling, but the temperature dependence of the change in active stiffness did not parallel that of force. At temperatures below 22 degrees C there appeared to be a relatively large population of attached, non-force-generating cross-bridges, indicating that separate mechanisms are involved in regulating cross-bridge attachment and the force per cross-bridge. 3. Active intrinsic tone was not affected by removal of extracellular Ca2+ or removal of endothelium. 4. Intracellular ionized Ca2+ concentrations ([Ca2+]i) as measured with the photoprotein aequorin, did not significantly change when intrinsic tone was abolished by cooling. 5. Myosin light chain phosphorylation, as measured by 2-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, significantly decreased on cooling, but the temperature dependence of phosphorylation did not parallel that of force. The change in phosphorylation in the absence of a change in [Ca2+]i suggests the presence of a constitutively active Ca(2+)-independent form of myosin light chain kinase. 6. Maximal concentrations of staurosporine inhibited but did not eliminate intrinsic tone. 7. Changes in myosin light chain kinase and protein kinase C activities may explain part but not all of the intrinsic tone.