The structure and specificity of endothelin receptors: their importance in physiology and medicine.

In addition to involvement in vascular endothelium-smooth muscle communication, the secretion of and receptors for, endothelins are widely distributed. Two cloned receptor subtypes are G-protein-coupled to several intracellular messengers, predominantly inositol phosphates. From a knowledge of structure-activity relationships and peptide conformations, details of receptor architecture and selective agents, including nonpeptides and antagonists, have been discovered. From the nature of the actions of endothelins, receptor distributions (including CNS) and plasma levels, it is concluded that they are paracrine factors normally involved in long-term cellular regulation, but which may be important in several pathologies, many of which are stress-related.