Effects of chronic diabetes on vascular responses of basilar artery and aorta from rabbits with alloxan-induced diabetes.

The influences of chronically diabetic states on contraction and relaxation responses of the isolated basilar artery and aorta to various vasoactive agents were examined in alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits with 2 years duration. There were no significant differences in the reactivities of basilar artery to norepinephrine (NE), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and KCl between age-matched control and diabetic rabbits. Maximal contractions of aorta with endothelium in response to NE and 5-HT were significantly enhanced in case concentration-response curves for NE and 5-HT-induced contractions in the aorta without endothelium from diabetic rabbits were not different from those from age-matched control rabbits. Acetylcholine-induced relaxations in both the basilar artery and aorta from diabetic rabbits were significantly attenuated compared with those from age-matched control rabbits. However, no differences were observed in concentration-response curves for sodiumnitroprusside-induced relaxations in both the basilar artery and aorta between diabetic rabbits and age-matched control rabbits. These results indicate that chronic diabetes induces an specific enhancement in the contractile responses to NE and 5-HT in aorta and an attenuation in the endothelium-dependent relaxation in both the basilar artery and aorta. These results further demonstrated that the cerebral artery is resistant to diabetes of 2 years duration as compared with the peripheral artery.