Endothelium- and sydnonimine-induced responses of native and cultured aortic smooth muscle cells are not impaired by nitroglycerin tolerance.

Tolerance to the cyclic GMP-mediated vasodilator action of nitroglycerin develops with prolonged exposure and may be mediated either by formation of less nitric oxide from nitroglycerin or by desensitization of soluble guanylate cyclase to activation with nitric oxide. In the latter case, smooth muscle cells tolerant to nitroglycerin should show cross-tolerance to nitric oxide released from sydnonimines and endothelial cells (endothelium-derived relaxing factor). Therefore cultured smooth muscle cells from rabbit aorta were pretreated for 1 h with vehicle or high concentrations (0.55 mM) of nitroglycerin or the sydnonimine SIN-1. The formation of cyclic GMP induced by subsequent small doses of nitroglycerin, sydnonimine SIN-1 and endothelium-derived relaxing factor (released from cultured endothelial cells) was compared with the changes in activation of soluble guanylate cyclase, cyclic GMP formation and vasodilation in response to the same stimuli in similarly pretreated segments from rabbit thoracic aortae. Both cultured and native smooth muscle cells remained responsive to stimulation with sydnonimine SIN-1 and endothelium-derived relaxing factor after pretreatment with nitroglycerin, vehicle, or sydnonimine SIN-1, even though they were tolerant to nitroglycerin after pretreatment with nitroglycerin. In contrast, activation of soluble guanylate cyclase by nitroglycerin and sydnonimine SIN-1 was attenuated in homogenates of nitrate-tolerant aortae. The findings suggest that nitroglycerin tolerance in intact cells does not involve desensitization of soluble guanylate cyclase, because in intact cells nitrate tolerance can be overcome by direct activators of soluble guanylate cyclase.