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Biomedical subjects

K Nakatsu

Publications and source records attributed to K Nakatsu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Fluorometric assay of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and 24R,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in plasma.

The first practical fluorometric assay of plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25-OH-D3) and 24R,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (24,25-(OH)2D3) is described. The method uses a highly fluorescent dienophile, 4-[2-(6,7-dimethoxy-4-methyl-3-oxo-3,4-dihydroquinoxalyl)ethyl]-1, 2,4- triazoline-3,5-dione (DMEQ-TAD), to fluorescence-label vitamin D. Vitamin D metabolites were roughly purified with a short cartridge column followed by HPLC, labeled with DMEQ-TAD, and the product was analyzed on HPLC. In the assay of 25-OH-D3 the new fluorometric method was compared with the HPLC-uv method and was confirmed to be as accurate and reliable (CV, 4-5%) as the HPLC-uv method. Plasma 24,25-(OH)2D3 was accurately assayed by the HPLC-FL method, where the standard addition method was successfully used to calculate the overall recovery.

24,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D 3

Carbon monoxide does not inhibit glyceryl trinitrate biotransformation by or relaxation of aorta.

Carbon monoxide (CO) was employed to assess the role of ferrous hemoproteins in the vasodilation and biotransformation of glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) in rabbit aortic strips. These tissues were contracted submaximally with phenylephrine, exposed to CO for 5 min, and then incubated with 0.5 microM [1,3(14) C]GTN in the presence of CO for 2 min or 30 s. The [14C]GTN-induced relaxation of the strips was recorded, and [14C]GTN biotransformation to [14C]glyceryl dinitrate metabolites by the tissues was determined by thin-layer chromatographic-liquid scintillation spectrometric analysis. CO treatment inhibited neither GTN-induced relaxation nor GTN biotransformation to glycerol dinitrate metabolites. These results indicate that ferrous hemoproteins are probably not involved in the biotransformation of GTN that is associated with relaxation of the rabbit aortic strips.

Animals

Plasma disposition and hemodynamic effects of a single oral dose of isosorbide dinitrate in human males and females.

The goal of the present work was to determine the plasma disposition and hemodynamic effects of isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) in human males and females. Fourteen healthy human volunteers took part in the study; seven males, 21.7 +/- 2.5 y (SD), and seven females, 20.7 +/- 3.4 y. Measurements of forearm blood flow (FBF), vascular conductance (FVC), and venous capacitance (Cv) were obtained by venous occlusion plethysmography, whereas blood pressure was measured by automatic sphygmomanometry. Blood samples were taken through a catheter placed in the antecubital vein at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 360, 480, 720, and 1440 min following a single 10 mg oral dose of ISDN. Plasma concentrations of ISDN and its mononitrate metabolites, isosorbide-2-mononitrate (2-ISMN) and isosorbide-5-mononitrate (5-ISMN), were determined by large bore capillary column gas-liquid chromatography. Hemodynamic measurements were made at corresponding experimental times up to 480 min. No differences were observed in the disposition of ISDN, 2-ISMN or 5-ISMN between the male and female volunteers. In addition, the plasma concentrations of ISDN and its mononitrate metabolites did not consistently correlate with the hemodynamic changes of the individual subjects. Diastolic blood pressure was significantly decreased for a 0.5 h period starting at 30 min, which was the time at which plasma ISDN concentrations peaked, and which preceded the time when the plasma concentrations of 2-ISMN and 5-ISMN were maximal. These observations indicate that, for a single 10 mg oral dose of ISDN, there were no gender-dependent differences in the plasma disposition of the parent drug or its mononitrate metabolites, and the vascular changes responsible for the decrease in diastolic blood pressure in these volunteers occurred in vascular beds other than those of skeletal muscle as represented by forearm blood flow.

Administration, Oral

Direct evidence for nitric oxide formation from glyceryl trinitrate during incubation with intact bovine pulmonary artery.

It has been proposed that the mechanism of the vasodilator action of glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) involves biotransformation to nitric oxide. A sensitive chemiluminescence method for nitric oxide determination was used to test this hypothesis. In four experiments, bovine pulmonary artery (BPA) was incubated with GTN (0.1 mM) in Krebs' solution (2 mL) containing 30 mM KCl, and in anaerobic conditions using 95% Ar - 5% CO2, in a sealed micro-Fernbach flask (6.2-mL volume). After incubation for 2, 5, 10, or 20 min at 37 degrees C, 400-microL aliquots of headspace gas were removed and injected into a redox chemiluminescence detector. Nitric oxide formation was first measurable at 5 min (76 +/- 53 pmol/g wet wt. BPA), and increased with incubation time (174 +/- 46 pmol/g wet wt. BPA after 10 min and 310 +/- 67 pmol/g wet wt. BPA after 20 min). This is the first direct chemical measurement of nitric oxide formation during interaction of GTN with vascular smooth muscle. These data support the concept that GTN is a nitrovasodilator prodrug acting via the formation of nitric oxide.

Animals

Biotransformation of glyceryl trinitrate by rat brain homogenate.

Incubation of glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) with 5% (w/v) rat brain homogenate (RBH) resulted in biotransformation of the organic nitrate vasodilator drug to a mixture of glyceryl-1,2-dinitrate (1,2-GDN) and glyceryl-1,3-dinitrate (1,3-GDN). Heating of the RBH at 100 degrees C for 5 min and (or) pretreatment with 5 mM N-ethylmaleimide at 37 degrees C for 10 min demonstrated that about two-thirds of the GTN biotransformation activity was due to a sulfhydryl-dependent enzymatic process resulting in the predominant formation of 1,2-GDN, and that the remaining biotransformation activity was due to a sulfhydryl-dependent nonenzymatic process resulting in the selective formation of 1,3-GDN. In a preliminary experiment, nitric oxide formation was observed during the incubation of GTN with RBH under anaerobic conditions. These data support the idea that some of the therapeutic and adverse effects of GTN are mediated through its action in the central nervous system.

Animals

Quantitation of nitric oxide formation from nitrovasodilator drugs by chemiluminescence analysis of headspace gas.

A rapid and reliable method has been developed for the quantitation of nitric oxide by chemiluminescence analysis of headspace gas. Aqueous nitric oxide standards are used to calibrate the method. There is a linear relationship between the amount of nitric oxide and the redox chemiluminescence detector response over the range of 52-2445 pmol of nitric oxide in 2.0 mL of deionized water contained in a sealed 6.2-mL flask. The intra-day and inter-day coefficient of variation values of the method do not exceed 4% and 9%, respectively. The lower limit of quantitative sensitivity and the lower limit of qualitative detection are 52 pmol and 26 pmol of nitric oxide, respectively. This method has been used to measure nitric oxide formation during the incubation of glyceryl trinitrate or sodium nitroprusside in the presence of cysteine. This method has two major advantages over the currently available procedures for the quantitation of nitric oxide, viz., no artifactual formation of nitric oxide during sample preparation and decreased instrumental contamination.

Cysteine

Does carbon monoxide have a physiological function?

Recently endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) has been identified as nitric oxide. The source of the nitric oxide is L-arginine, and the L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway has been proposed to function as a widespread transduction mechanism for the regulation of cell function and communication. Gerald Marks and colleagues suggest that carbon monoxide, which is formed endogenously from heme catabolism and which shares some of the chemical and biological properties of nitric oxide, may play a similar role. This would be achieved by carbon monoxide binding to the iron atom of the heme moiety of soluble guanylyl cyclase and to the iron-sulfur centers of macrophage enzymes.

Animals

Adrenoceptors of the human internal thoracic artery.

Adrenoceptor function in the human internal thoracic artery (ITA) was characterized in vitro using segments of the artery obtained during coronary bypass operations. Specimens were prepared as isolated arterial rings mounted in a tissue bath, and mechanical activity (isometric tension) was measured in response to drugs. The ITA responded to phenylephrine (PE), epinephrine, and norepinephrine with concentration-dependent contractions. The PE-induced contractions were antagonized by phenoxybenzamine, prazosin, and high concentrations of yohimbine. The ITA was not effectively contracted by clonidine in the concentration range normally associated with alpha 2-adrenoceptor stimulation. The beta-adrenoceptor agonist, isoproterenol, had a weak and variable effect on the ITA; samples from 9 out of 12 subjects did not respond to isoproterenol, whereas samples from 3 subjects responded with relaxations of between 33 and 42%. These in vitro studies indicate that the most important adrenoceptors of the human ITA are alpha-adrenoceptors; this may be relevant for the pharmacologic management of patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery using the ITA.

Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists

Interaction of glyceryl trinitrate and sodium nitroprusside with bovine pulmonary vein homogenate and 10,000 x g supernatant: biotransformation and nitric oxide formation.

The current proposed mechanism of action of nitrovasodilator drugs involves biotransformation to nitric oxide, which is postulated to be the active vasodilator substance. Our objective was to determine whether nitric oxide was formed from two prototype nitrovasodilator drugs, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP), after incubation with bovine pulmonary vein (BPV) preparations. GTN or SNP was incubated in an argon atmosphere with phosphate buffer, BPV homogenate, or the 10,000 x g supernatant fraction of the homogenate. Nitric oxide formation, as determined by a chemiluminescence-headspace gas method, was measurable following the incubation of SNP with BPV homogenate and 10,000 x g supernatant. There was no detectable formation of nitric oxide from the incubation of GTN with the two BPV preparations, although GTN was biotransformed to glyceryl dinitrate, as determined by gas-liquid chromatography. There was decreased recovery of nitric oxide during the incubation of authentic nitric oxide with the two BPV preparations as compared with buffer. In conclusion, formation of nitric oxide was measured for the interaction of SNP, but not GTN, with BPV preparations. However, the data do not exclude the possible formation of nitric oxide from GTN, as nitric oxide was shown to be sequestered or transformed by the BPV preparations.

Animals

Sequestration of glyceryl trinitrate (nitroglycerin) by cardiopulmonary bypass oxygenators.

The effectiveness of glyceryl trinitrate (nitroglycerin) in controlling myocardial ischemia and blood pressure during coronary artery bypass graft surgery is frequently lost during surgery, possibly as a result of drug sequestration by the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit. The objective of this study was to utilize a gas-liquid chromatographic assay to determine the extent of removal of glyceryl trinitrate from the priming fluid by the bubble and membrane oxygenators. The apparatus was maintained at either 25 or 37 degrees C, the two extreme temperatures experienced by the patient during bypass surgery. At apparent steady state, the circulating glyceryl trinitrate concentration was decreased by 20.6%, 46.6%, and 67.3% with the Maxima membrane oxygenator, Cobe membrane oxygenator, and Bentley bubble oxygenator, respectively. The three-layer defoaming filters that are used in the Bentley bubble oxygenator were studied by immersing each of the three filters in fluid containing 60 nM glyceryl trinitrate and monitoring the drug concentration in Plasmalyte. The filters sequestered approximately 90% of the glyceryl trinitrate from the bathing solution of which 31% was recovered with a single methanol wash of the polyurethane filter. These data demonstrate that the different oxygenators used in the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit remove glyceryl trinitrate to varying degrees from the circulating fluid.

Cardiopulmonary Bypass

Assay of glyceryl trinitrate, isosorbide dinitrate, and their metabolites in plasma by large-bore capillary column gas-liquid chromatography.

Two large-bore capillary columns, one with dimethyl polysiloxane (HP-1) as the stationary phase and the other with phenyl (50 per cent) methyl (50 per cent) polysiloxane (DB-17), were used to develop gas-liquid chromatographic (GLC) assays for measuring isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN), glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), and their metabolites. ISDN, isosorbide-2-mononitrate (2-ISMN), and isosorbide-5-mononitrate (5-ISMN) in plasma, ranging in concentration from 1 to 300 nM, and GTN, glyceryl-1,2-dinitrate (1,2-GDN), and glyceryl-1,3-dinitrate (1,3-GDN), ranging in concentration from 3 to 60 nM in plasma, were analysed on both columns. GLC analysis yielded baseline resolution of the analytes. The method using the dimethyl polysiloxane column gave a lower limit of detectability for GTN of 0.75 nM (signal/noise (s/n) = 2), and the procedure using the phenyl-methyl column provided a lower limit of detectability for ISDN of 81 pM (s/n = 2). The large-bore column GLC procedures exhibited shorter retention times for both ISDN and GTN than those previously reported for capillary-column assays. The chromatographic resolution of analytes and column efficiency of the large-bore capillary columns were comparable to the results previously found using capillary-column GC. The assays for ISDN and GTN have been shown to be appropriate for pharmacokinetic studies in volunteers and patients. We determined that the HP-1 column is appropriate for the analysis of GTN and metabolites, and the DB-17 column is suitable for analysis of ISDN and its metabolites. We conclude that the use of large-bore capillary columns provides rapid and reliable GLC assays for organic nitrates.

Chromatography, Gas

Biotransformation of glyceryl trinitrate and elevation of cyclic GMP precede glyceryl trinitrate-induced vasodilation.

In this study, we examined glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) biotransformation and cyclic GMP elevation in vascular smooth muscle before onset of GTN-induced relaxation. Isolated rabbit aortic strips (RAS) and strips of bovine pulmonary artery (BPA) and bovine pulmonary vein (BPV) were contracted submaximally and incubated with [3H]GTN. Before onset of GTN-induced vasodilation, the tissues were freeze-clamped and then analyzed for GTN, glyceryl-1,2-dinitrate (1,2-GDN), and glyceryl-1,3-dinitrate (1,3-GDN) and for cyclic GMP. Before onset of relaxation of RAS, BPA, and BPV, there was significant biotransformation of GTN to GDN and significant elevation of cyclic GMP. There was significantly greater biotransformation of GTN and elevation of cyclic GMP by BPV than by BPA incubated with the same concentration of GTN, which was temporally related with the more rapid onset of relaxation induced in BPV than in BPA. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the magnitude of GTN biotransformation before vasodilation is the important determinant of subsequent tissue relaxation. In GTN biotransformation before vasodilation, there was preferential formation of 1,2-GDN. These data indicate that the mechanism of GTN biotransformation to 1,2-GDN is related to elevation of cyclic GMP and subsequent vasodilation.

Animals

Role of cGMP in relaxation of vascular and other smooth muscle.

The hypothesis that the relaxant action of many drugs on vascular and other smooth muscle is mediated by increases in intracellular cGMP, the "cGMP hypothesis," is gaining wide acceptance. While much information supporting this idea can be found in the literature, there is also a significant amount of information indicating that an elevation in the tissue content of cGMP is by itself insufficient to cause smooth muscle relaxation. The literature is reviewed with reference to the criteria that need to be fulfilled to consider cGMP as the second messenger mediating relaxation of smooth muscle by a drug; i.e., activation of guanylate cyclase, elevation of tissue content of cGMP, potentiation by phosphodiesterase inhibitors, antagonism by inhibitors of cGMP synthesis, and production of relaxation by cGMP analogues. For each criterion, key observations supporting the hypothesis are considered, followed by examples of important observations not consistent with the hypothesis. It is concluded that in some smooth muscles, for example, rat myometrium and vas deferens, cGMP is not a mediator of drug-induced relaxation. In other smooth muscles, including vascular smooth muscle, cGMP appears to play an important role in the relaxation process; but current evidence suggests that other factors are also important and that the cGMP hypothesis may need to be modified.

Animals

Differential biotransformation of glyceryl trinitrate by red blood cell-supernatant fraction and pulmonary vein homogenate.

We have demonstrated previously that glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) undergoes biotransformation to two glyceryl dinitrate (GDN) metabolites in the human red blood cell-supernatant fraction (RBC-SF) by hemoglobin-mediated and sulfhydryl-dependent enzymatic mechanisms. In the present study, we have shown that biotransformation of GTN in rabbit RBC-SF yields a glyceryl-1,2-dinitrate (1,2-GDN)/glyceryl-1,3-dinitrate (1,3-GDN) ratio of 5.3. Following inhibition of hemoglobin-mediated biotransformation of GTN by carbon monoxide (CO), the 1,2-GDN/1,3-GDN ratio was 2.1. Following inhibition of sulfhydryl-dependent biotransformation by N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), the 1,2-GDN/1,3-GDN ratio was 30.0. We have demonstrated previously that for GTN-induced vasodilation of isolated bovine pulmonary vein (BPV), the 1,2-GDN/1,3-GDN ratio was 7.1, which indicated that a hemoprotein-dependent process was involved in GTN biotransformation. To determine if this was the case, the biotransformation of GTN (0.51 microM) was studied in BPV homogenates; 31.1 pmol GDN/mg BPV protein was formed in 20 min. The 1,2-GDN/1,3-GDN ratio was 1.1, which indicated that hemoprotein-mediated biotransformation did not occur. This conclusion was supported by the fact that CO did not inhibit GTN biotransformation. GTN biotransformation by BPV homogenate was inhibited 62% by NEM, 89% by boiling of the homogenate, and almost completely by boiling plus NEM. These results indicated that biotransformation of GTN by the BPV homogenate involved in a combination of enzymatic and nonenzymatic processes that were mostly sulfhydryl dependent. It is concluded that the mechanism for GTN biotransformation in isolated intact BPV, which yielded preferential formation of 1,2-GDN, was rendered nonfunctional upon tissue homogenization.

Animals

Biotransformation of glyceryl trinitrate and isosorbide dinitrate in vascular smooth muscle made tolerant to organic nitrates.

It has been proposed that organic nitrates are prodrugs and biotransformation to a pharmacologically active metabolite (i.e., nitric oxide) must occur before the onset of vasodilation. If this postulated mechanism is correct, tolerance to organic nitrate-induced vasodilation might involve decreased biotransformation of organic nitrates by vascular smooth muscle. In this study, biotransformation of isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) and glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) was estimated by measuring isosorbide mononitrate (ISMN) and glyceryl dinitrate (GDN), respectively, rather than the nitrate anion, because of a more sensitive method for measurement of ISMN and GDN. To test this hypothesis, isolated rabbit aortic strips (RAS) were made tolerant in vitro by incubation with 500 microM GTN or ISDN for 1 h. After a washout period and submaximal contraction with phenylephrine, the tissues were incubated with either 2.0 microM [14C]ISDN or 0.5 microM [14C]GTN for 2 min. ISDN- or GTN-induced relaxation of RAS was monitored and tissue parent drug and metabolite contents were determined by thin-layer chromatography and liquid scintillation spectrometry. ISDN- and GTN-induced relaxation of RAS and the metabolite concentrations were significantly less for both GTN- and ISDN-tolerant tissue compared with nontolerant tissue. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that organic nitrate biotransformation is required for organic nitrate-induced vasodilation.

Animals