Permissive and obligatory roles of NO in cerebrovascular responses to hypercapnia and acetylcholine

Inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) synthesis attenuates the hypercapnic cerebrovasodilation or the increases in cerebral blood flow (CBF) produced by acetylcholine (ACh), either topically applied or endogenously released in neocortex by stimulation of the basal forebrain cholinergic system. We investigated whether exogenous administration of NO, using NO donors, can reverse the attenuation of these responses by NO synthase (NOS) inhibitors. In halothane-anesthetized, ventilated rats the frontoparietal cortex was exposed and superfused with Ringer. CBF was monitored at the super fusion site by laser-Doppler flowmetry. The basal forebrain was stimulated (100 microA; 50 Hz) with microelectrodes stereotaxically implanted. Superfusion with the NOS inhibitor NG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA; 1 mM) reduced resting CBF (-38 +/- 2%; mean +/- SE) and attenuated the vasodilation elicited by hypercapnia (Pco2, 50-60 mmHg; -79 +/- 3%), ACh (10 microM; -83 +/- 7%), or basal forebrain stimulation (-44 +/- 2%) (P 0.05 from Ringer) and reversed the attenuation of the response to hypercapnia (P > 0.05 from Ringer). However, SIN-1 or SNAP failed to reverse the attenuation of the response to basal forebrain stimulation or topical ACh (P > 0.05 from L-NNA). After L-NNA, the NO-independent vasodilator papaverine (n = 4) reestablished resting CBF (P > 0.05 from Ringer) but failed to restore the hypercapnic vasodilation (P > 0.05 from L-NNA). The attenuation of hypercapnic response by the neuronal NOS inhibitor 7-nitroindazole was counteracted only partially by SIN-1 (n = 4) or 8-BrcGMP (n = 4). The data support the hypothesis that the vasodilation elicited by hypercapnia requires resting levels of NO for its expression, whereas the response to endogenous or exogenous ACh depends on agonist-induced NOS activation. In hypercapnia NO may act as a permissive factor by facilitating the action of other vasodilators, whereas in the vascular response initiated by ACh NO is likely to be the major mediator of smooth muscle relaxation.