Mechanisms of estrogen-induced vasodilation: In vivo studies in canine coronary conductance and resistance arteries

OBJECTIVES: We sought to examine the immediate vasodilator effect of intracoronary estrogen on epicardial and resistance coronary arteries in 19 dogs. BACKGROUND: Although estrogen reportedly dilates coronary arteries in vitro, the site and mechanisms of its action have not been fully defined in vivo. METHODS: Epicardial coronary artery dimensions and coronary flow velocity were assessed using simultaneous intracoronary two-dimensional and Doppler ultrasound. RESULTS: Estrogen (0.1 and 1 mumol/liter) induced a significant increase in coronary cross-sectional area, flow velocity and volumetric blood flow. Estrogen-induced vasodilation was not influenced either by pretreatment with N omega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) (100 mumol/liter intracoronary), indomethacin (5 mg/kg body weight intravenously), propranolol (0.75 mg/kg intravenously) or the classic estrogen receptor antagonist ICI 182,780 (10 mumol/liter). Balloon denudation of the endothelium did not attenuate estrogen-induced epicardial vasodilation. Pretreatment with glibenclamide (10 mumol/liter) attenuated estrogen-induced vasodilation only in epicardial arteries, as did verapamil (0.1 mumol/liter). Estrogen had no effect on a phenylephrine dose-response curve in either epicardial coronary arteries or the microcirculation. CONCLUSIONS: Acute estrogen-induced dilation in canine coronary arteries is endothelium independent and is not mediated by the classic intracellular estrogen receptor but through non-genomic mechanisms, presumably at the membrane level, which in epicardial arteries may include effects on adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium or calcium channels, or both.