Effects of tonin, an angiotensin II-forming enzyme, on vascular smooth muscle in the normal rabbit.

Tonin is an enzyme of the serine protease family present in different rat tissues which releases angiotensin II (AII) directly from angiotensinogen and the tetradecapeptide renin substrate and from angiotensin I (AI). Tonin potentiates the effect of norepinephrine (NE) in the rat mesenteric artery preparation and in the aortic strips from normal and hypertensive rats. In rabbit aortic and mesenteric artery strips tonin potentiates the effect of NE, almost doubling its response. A similar effect was observed on the KCl and AII-induced contraction. This tonin-induced potentiation is reversible and long-lasting, persisting for 1 to 2 hours after being added into the tissue bath. In 75% of the vascular strips assayed, tonin elicited a contraction with a short latency period and with a maximum tension ranging from a few milligrams to over 1 g. To clarify the mechanisms of tonin effect on vascular smooth muscle, a variety of agents have been used. Neither indomethacin, saralasin, nor alpha- or beta-adrenergic blockers changed the direct contraction or the potentiation induced to NE. Db-cAMP and theophylline blocked the potentiation to the response to NE. A Ca2+-free medium, La3+, and verapamil produced a 75% inhibition of the direct tonin-induced contraction. Papaverine, isoproterenol, and theophylline relaxed the same contraction. Enzymatic inactivation of tonin blocked completely the direct contraction but not the potentiation to NE. These experiments suggest that the vasoactive effect of tonin may be mediated by the release of intracellular-bound calcium, an effect dependent on a proteolytic effect of tonin, and by increasing the cellular permeability to calcium, which is not of a proteolytic effect. It is suggested that tonin remains attached to the vascular strips by mechanisms as yet not clarified.