The Role of Calcium in the Response of Rabbit Aorta to Angiotensin

The role of Ca++ in the stimulus-contraction coupling of the response of the isolated rabbit aorta to angiotensin II was investigated. Angiotensin was found to have lower intrinsic activity than epinephrine and to be more sensitive to acute exposure of the organ to Ca++-free medium. Two minutes after removal of Ca++, the maximal responses to angiotensin and epinephrine were reduced by 40% +/- 8% and 7% +/- 5%, respectively. Further loss of response for the two agonists followed parallel time courses. In another series of experiments, angiotensin tachyphylaxis was obtained in the rabbit aorta by administration of either [1-sarcosine]angiotensin or betainyl-angiotensin. The intrinsic activity of [1-sarcosine]angiotensin was lower than that of angiotensin and was not affected by removal of Ca++. It is concluded that the low intrinsic activity and the tachyphylaxis may be dependent on a strong binding of the molecule's positively charged N-terminus to sites responsible for release of Ca++ into the cell.