Comparison of the effects of a bufodienolide and ouabain on neuronal and smooth muscle preparations

The effect of a bufodienolide (monohydroxy-14,15-epoxy-20,22-dienolide glycoside) purified from toad skin was compared with that of ouabain on 3H-noradrenaline release and on the tension of rabbit pulmonary arterial strips. This compound exerted an ouabain-like activity. The neuronal effects of this bufodienolide derivative on squid axon were also studied and compared with those of ouabain. Both compounds enhanced the resting and stimulation-evoked (2 Hz. 360 shocks) release of 3H-noradrenaline. Moreover, in the presence of either this bufodienolide or ouabain, the tension of the rabbit artery increased gradually, and the contraction evoked by electrical stimulation was potentiated. Both compounds enhanced, in a prazosin-sensitive way, smooth muscle responses to noradrenaline and to electrical stimulation. In higher concentrations, they contracted smooth muscle cells of pulmonary artery, an action which was insensitive to prazosin. The bufodienolide was about 8 times more active in inhibition of 22Na efflux than was ouabain, but did not affect Ca efflux, which is not sensitive to ouabain. It is therefore concluded that compounds with an inhibitory effect on Na+,K+-ATPase are able to affect chemical neurotransmission of blood vessels in such a way that in lower concentrations they potentiate the release of noradrenaline, and in higher concentrations they contract directly the smooth muscle. These findings indicate that such compounds if they are present in the circulation might be involved in the physiological regulation of blood pressure or in the genesis of hypertension.