Abstract

We observed a contractile action of ethanol (20–500 mM) and other alcohols (methanol and propanol, but not butanol) in guinea pig gastric longitudinal (LM) and circular (CM) smooth muscle preparations. The potency order for the alcohols in the LM preparation was: ethanol = propanol > methanol; and in the CM preparation, propanol > ethanol > methanol. Like epidermal growth factor-urogastrone (EGF), the contractile actions of ethanol in the LM and CM preparations required extracellular calcium and were blocked by the tyrosine kinase inhibitors, genistein and tyrphostin-47 (AG213). The tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor, pervanadate, potentiated the contractile action of ethanol in the LM preparation. Ethanol-induced contractions in both preparations were not affected by 4-methyl pyrazole, an inhibitor of alcohol dehydrogenase, and were unaffected by tetrodotoxin, atropine, prazosine or yohimbine. In the LM preparation, like EGF, the contractile action of ethanol was blocked by the cyclooxygenase inhibitor, indomethacin, and the diacylglycerol lipase inhibitor, U57,908; in the CM preparation, contractions caused by ethanol and EGF were still observed in the presence of these two inhibitors. Contractions caused by ethanol and EGF in the LM preparation were not affected by the epoxygenase inhibitor, ketoconazole; the lipoxygenase inhibitor, nordihydroguaiaretic acid; or the phospholipase A₂ inhibitor, mepacrine. In contrast, in the LM preparation, EGF-induced contractions were attentuated by the EGF receptor-kinase inhibitor, PD153035; the MAP-kinasekinase (MEK) inhibitor, PD98059; the kinase C inhibitor, GF109203X; and the phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase inhibitors, Wortmannin and LY294002; whereas ethanol-induced contractions were unaffected by these inhibitors. Both ethanol and EGF caused small increases in the phosphotyrosyl protein content of the gastric tissue. We conclude that ethanol causes its contractile effects in the distinct gastric LM and CM preparations independent of nerve-released agonists andvia a tyrosine kinase inhibitor-sensitive signal pathway that is in many respects similar to, but distinct from the one activated by EGF.