Vol. 284, Issue 1, 370-377, 1998

Pharmacological Analysis of the Tachykinin Receptors that Mediate Activation of Nonadrenergic, Noncholinergic Relaxant Nerves that Innervate Guinea Pig Trachealis¹

Brendan J. Canning, Axel Fischer and Bradley J. Undem

The Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center (B.J.C., B.J.U.), Baltimore, Maryland and Justus-Liebig University, Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology (A.F.), Giessen, Germany

Previous studies indicated that antidromic stimulation of capsaicin-sensitive vagal afferent fibers activated, via peripheral release of tachykinins, nonadrenergic, noncholinergic parasympathetic ganglion neurons that mediate relaxations of guinea pig trachealis. On the basis of the effects of selective agonists and inhibition with a nonselective receptor antagonist (SR 48968), we speculated that tachykinin-mediated activation of neurokinin₃ (NK₃) receptors might be involved. Using the recently developed NK₃-selective receptor antagonist SR 142801, we further assessed the role of NK₃ receptors in these relaxant responses. Relaxations of the guinea pig trachea elicited by antidromic stimulation of capsaicin-sensitive vagal afferent nerves were markedly inhibited by 0.3 µM SR 142801 and were abolished by a combination of SR 142801 and either of the NK₁-selective receptor antagonists SR 140333 and CP 99994 (0.3 µM each). The NK₃ receptor antagonist had similar effects on the relaxant responses elicited by capsaicin and substance P, but it had no effect on relaxations of the trachealis elicited by electrical field stimulation of the postganglionic nerves that innervate the trachealis or by stimulation of the preganglionic parasympathetic vagal nerves that innervate the trachea. These results and the observation that the ganglion neurons that mediate these responses are densely innervated by substance P-containing nerve fibers lead us conclude that stimulation of capsaicin-sensitive visceral afferent fibers activates, upon peripheral release of tachykinins, nonadrenergic, noncholinergic inhibitory neurons innervating guinea pig trachealis via activation of both NK₃ and NK₁ receptors.