Requirement of Pretone by Thromboxane $A_2$ for Hypoxic Pulmonary Vasoconstriction in Precision-cut Lung Slices of Rat

Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) is physiologically important response for preventing mismatching between ventilation and perfusion in lungs. The HPV of isolated pulmonary arteries (HPV-PA) usually require a partial pretone by thromboxane agonist (U46619). Because the HPV of ventilated/perfused lungs (HPV-lung) can be triggered without pretone conditioning, we suspected that a putative tissue factor might be responsible for the pretone of HPV. Here we investigated whether HPV can be also observed in precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) from rats. The HPV in PCLS also required partial contraction by U46619. In addition, $K^+$ channel blockers (4AP and TEA) required U46619-pretone to induce significant contraction of PA in PCLS. In contrast, the airways in PCLS showed reversible contraction in response to the $K^+$ channel blockers without pretone conditioning. Also, the airways showed no hypoxic constriction but a relaxation under the partial pretone by U46619. The airways in PCLS showed reliable, concentration-dependent contraction by metacholine ($EC_{50}$, ~210 nM). In summary, the HPV in PCLS is more similar to isolated PA than V/P lungs. The metacholineinduced constriction of bronchioles suggested that the PLCS might be also useful for studying airway physiology in situ.