Coronary Vascular Control by PDE5 and Endothelin

While vasodilators and vasoconstrictors have been studied for decades as individual components of coronary blood flow modulation, recent work by Dirk Duncker and colleagues takes a rarely-seen integrative physiological approach to elucidate the mechanisms of both systems in relationship to each other. Listen as Associate Editor Fabio Recchia (Temple University and Scuola Superiore S. Anna, Pisa) interviews lead author Dirk Duncker (Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam) and expert Gerd Heusch (Universitatsklinikum Essen) about the highly complex work by Zhou et al, in which studying a chronically instrumented, conscious and exercising large animal model leads to new insights into the role of PDE5 in coronary vascular control. Can we really drill down to a mechanistic level when starting with an integrative physiology whole animal model? Listen now.

Zhichao Zhou, Vincent J. de Beer, Shawn B. Bender, A. H. Jan Danser, Daphne Merkus, M. Harold Laughlin, Dirk J. Duncker Phosphodiesterase-5 activity exerts a coronary vasoconstrictor influence in awake swine that is mediated in part via an increase in endothelin production Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published online January 24, 2014. DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00331.2013.