The effects of the synthetic nocistatin on blood vessel activities

Nocistatin was synthesized by the solid-phase peptide synthesis method. Its effects on rat systemic arterial pressure; rat hindquarter vascular bed resistance; tension of rabbit pectoral, abdominal, femoral aorta muscle strips without endothelium; and nociceptin induced decreases of rat systemic arterial pressure were determined. The results showed that nocistatin can increase the systemic arterial pressure, increase the hindquarter vascular bed resistance and induce the contraction significantly of abdominal, femoral aorta muscle strips without endotheiium; it has no significant effect on tension of pectoral aorta muscle strips, it cannot antagonize significantly the decrease of rat systemic arterial pressure induced by nociceptin. These results suggest that nocistatin has some important effects on blood vessel activities.