Materials and Methods: Deep intracavernous penile arteries with an internal lumen diameter of 200-500 mu m., isolated from the corpus cavernosum of young horses, were mounted in microvascular myographs for isometric tension recording and electrical field stimulation (EFS) of autonomic nerve terminals.

Results: In the presence of guanethidine (10(-5) M) and atropine (10(-7) M) tone of the arteries was raised by the thromboxane analogue, U46619. EFS (1, 4 and 32 Hz) induced frequency-dependent relaxations, which were abolished in the presence of tetrodotoxin, while N-G-nitro-L-arginine (L-NOARG, 10(-4) M) abolished the relaxations to EFS at 1 Hz, and significantly reduced the relaxations at 4 Hz and 32 Hz by 82.5 +/- 10.2% and 52.9 +/- 4.7%, respectively (n = 6). EFS induced relaxations of a similar magnitude in penile arteries contracted with U46619 or the alpha(1)-adrenoceptor agonist, phenylephrine, while the alpha(2)-adrenoceptor agonist, BHT920 (10(-6) M), produced an inhibitory effect on the EFS-evoked relaxations which was inversely related to the stimulus frequency (1, 4 and 32 Hz). BHT920 had no effect on the relaxations induced by exogenous nitric oxide (NO), added as acidified sodium nitrite (10(-6)-10(-3) M). The inhibitory effect of BHT920 on NANC relaxations was reversed by 10(-7) M rauwolscine.

Conclusion: These results suggest that the release of a NANC neurotransmitter primarily thought to be NO is inhibited by stimulation of prejunctional alpha(2)-adrenoceptors in horse penile resistance arteries.