(Hypertension. 1997;30:449.)
© 1997 American Heart Association, Inc.
Articles |
11ßOH-Progesterone Affects Vascular Glucocorticoid Metabolism and Contractile Response
From Rhode Island Hospital (A.S.B., R.B.B.), Roger Williams Medical Center (T.K.), Miriam Hospital (D.J.M.), and Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, RI.
Correspondence to Andrew S. Brem, MD, Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Rhode Island Hospital, 593 Eddy St, Providence, RI 02903.
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Abstract |
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Abstract Vascular smooth muscle (VSM) contains a bidirectional isoform of 11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11ß-HSD), the enzyme that can metabolize endogenous glucocorticoids to their respective 11-dehydro derivatives. 11ßOH-progesterone (11ßOH-P), a compound that can be produced in vivo, is as potent or more potent than licorice derivatives in inhibiting renal and hepatic 11ß-HSD. When studied in homogenates prepared from primary cultures of rat VSM, 11ßOH-P and its derivative, 11-keto-progesterone (11-keto-P), proved to be potent, directionally specific inhibitors of vascular 11ß-HSD. 11ßOH-P selectively inhibited the forward dehydrogenase reaction (corticosterone
11-dehydrocorticosterone),
whereas 11-keto-P selectively blocked the reverse oxidoreductase
reaction. To test the physiological effects,
vascular rings were prepared from rat aorta. Rings were incubated in
culture media containing either a submaximal concentration of
corticosterone (10 nmol/L),
11-dehydrocorticosterone (100 nmol/L),
11ßOH-P (1 µmol/L), 11-keto-P (1 µmol/L), or a
combination of glucocorticoid and inhibitor for 24 hours.
After the 24-hour incubation, rings were briefly stimulated
sequentially with phenylephrine (10 nmol/L to 1
µmol/L) and angiotensin II (1 µmol/L). The
immediate contractile response in rings incubated with both
corticosterone and 11ßOH-P was greater than in rings previously
incubated with either the corticosterone or 11ßOH-P alone (eg,
response to 100 nmol/L phenylephrine in milligrams of
force, mean±SE: corticosterone, 728±56, n=9; 11ßOH-P, 325±105,
n=4; both, 1132±122, n=8; corticosterone versus both,
P<.01). In contrast, the immediate contractile responses to
phenylephrine and to angiotensin II were
attenuated in rings exposed previously to both
11-dehydrocorticosterone and 11-keto-P.
Thus, 11ßOH-P and 11-keto-P (and possibly structurally similar
compounds) alter the vascular effects of glucocorticoids and may play a
role in glucocorticoid-induced hypertension.
Key Words: muscle, smooth, vascular • angiotensin • glucocorticoids • catecholamines • progesterone • metabolites
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Introduction |
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In clinical practice, a prolonged exposure to glucocorticoids has long been associated with a rise in blood pressure. Although glucocorticoids may affect salt and water handling by the kidney, these steroids appear to play their greatest role by influencing vascular resistance.1 2 Kornel and coworkers3 4 have clearly shown that both sodium and calcium ion influx increase in vascular smooth muscle cells after a minimum 6-hour incubation with glucocorticoids and that the rate of flux reaches a maximum within 48 hours. Moreover, vascular smooth muscle cells exposed to glucocorticoids for a similar time period demonstrate a greater number of catecholamine and angiotensin II cell receptors.5 6 7 8 Both of these observations in vascular tissue correlate temporally with enhanced vascular tone.
The physiological effect of
endogenous glucocorticoids (corticosterone in the rat and
cortisol in humans) is modulated, at least in part, by the presence of
the enzyme 11ß-HSD in liver,9 kidney,10 11
and vascular smooth muscle cells.7 12 13 Vascular
11ß-HSD is bidirectional; thus, regulation of enzyme direction and
enzyme expression are both important in controlling local
glucocorticoid metabolism. Licorice derivatives have been
the most widely studied of the exogenous 11ß-HSD
inhibitors. This group of inhibitors appears to
affect the forward dehydrogenase reaction
(corticosterone11-dehydrocorticosterone)
to a far greater degree than the reverse oxidoreductase reaction
(11-dehydrocorticosteronecorticosterone).14 15
The discovery of "directional" specificity in exogenous 11ß-HSD inhibitors has raised the possibility that endogenously produced "licorice-like" factors might exist. Recently, Takeda et al16 demonstrated that pregnenolone can be converted to corticosterone, deoxycorticosterone, 18-OH-corticosterone, or aldosterone in vascular smooth muscle cells. Furthermore, these investigators used reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction to show that steroidogenic enzymes including CYP 11B1 (cytochrome P450 steroid 11ß hydroxylase) and CYP 11B2 (aldosterone synthase) are expressed in vascular smooth muscle.17 CYP 11B1 expression is increased in the mesenteric arteries of adrenalectomized rats, likely secondary to high ACTH levels. The conversion of pregnenolone to the endogenous glucocorticoid corticosterone means that 11ß-hydroxylated steroid intermediates, including 11ß-OH progesterone, could be produced in vascular tissue. In addition, 11ß-OH-progesterone and 11-keto-P have been isolated in venous drainage from the adrenal gland in animal studies18 and can be seen in humans under certain clinical conditions, eg, 17-hydroxylase deficiency. 11ß-OH progesterone and related compounds are of particular interest because these agents are potent inhibitors of 11ß-HSD dehydrogenase activity.19 The present studies, conducted in rat vascular tissue, clearly show that 11ß-OH progesterone and its 11-keto metabolite inhibit vascular 11ß-HSD in a directionally specific way and that the inhibition can be correlated with altered contractile response to known vasoconstrictors.
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Methods |
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Primary Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Cultures
The aortae from eight adult Sprague-Dawley rats were dissected under sterile conditions, and associated fat and connective tissue were removed. The aortae were next incubated at 37°C for 15 minutes with digestion mixture that consisted of collagenase (1 mg/mL), elastase (0.125 mg/mL), DMEM/F12 (Gibco BRL) with HEPES (pH 7.4), penicillin (100 µg/mL), and streptomycin (100 µg/mL). At the completion of the incubation, the adventitia was carefully stripped, the vessel longitudinally opened, and the luminal surface gently scraped with forceps to remove endothelial cells. The remaining tissues were then minced into 1-mm pieces and incubated with digestion mixture for an additional 90 minutes at 37°C by use of a shaking water bath. The digestion was stopped with 8 mL of DMEM/F12, 10% fetal calf serum, and 25 mmol/L HEPES. After digestion, the remnant tissue became a suspension of smooth muscle cells. The cells were passed over a sieve and centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 5 minutes. The supernatant was discarded, and the cells were resuspended in DMEM/F12, 10% fetal calf serum, and 25 mmol/L HEPES. The cells were then plated at a concentration of 1x104 viable cells/cm onto T-25 plates and placed in an incubator. The flasks were gassed with 5% CO2 and maintained at 37°C. Cells studied up to 40 passages have been shown to retain the expression of
-actin, a
factor unique to vascular smooth muscle cells. Cell counts were obtained before each plating and before any experiment. The medium for the cells was changed twice per week. Studies were usually conducted on the cells after 5 to 7 days, when the cells had reached confluence and were in a quiescent stage. Cells were made quiescent by removing all growth factors, including fetal calf serum, from the incubation medium for 48 hours before study.
11ß-HSD Enzyme Kinetics and Directionality
Experiments were conducted with either homogenates
prepared from the cultures of primary rat vascular smooth muscle cells
or endothelium-intact 3-mm aortic vascular rings.
Homogenates of the cultured cells were made in isotonic
HEPES buffer at pH 7.4 and 290 mOsm/kg in the presence of the protease
inhibitors leupeptin and aprotinin (Sigma Chemical Co)
(0.001 mg/mL for each). The protein concentration of the
homogenate was 
0.5 mg/mL. The cofactor
NADP+ (200 µmol/L) was added to
homogenates when the dehydrogenase reaction was being
measured and 200 µmol/L NADPH was added for studies
assessing the oxidoreductase reaction. All samples were incubated at
37°C. Corticosterone or
11-dehydrocorticosterone was used as the
substrate in these studies in concentrations ranging from 10
nmol/L to 1 µmol/L for the kinetics studies, with
10 nmol/L 3H-labeled and the remainder unlabeled
steroid. Incubation times were for 30 minutes unless otherwise
indicated in the homogenate experiments. The rings were
incubated for 24 hours as outlined for the contractile response
studies.
The reaction was stopped with the addition of methanol (1 mL) for all the experiments. With intact tissue, steroids and their respective metabolites were extracted into the methanol over a 24-hour period. For the homogenate studies, samples were centrifuged at 3600 rpm for 10 minutes after the addition of the methanol. The steroids present in the supernatant were separated by high-pressure liquid chromatography with a DuPont Zorbax C8 column eluted at 44°C at a flow rate of 1 mL/min using 60% methanol for 10 minutes. We observed the various steroid compounds by monitoring radioactivity on-line with a Packard Radiomatic Flo-One/Beta Series A-500 counter connected to a Dell Optiplex 425 S/L computer running Windows 3.1 and A505 Flo-One for MacIntosh (version 2.0A). We identified steroids by comparing the retention times with those of known standards. Results of the homogenate experiments were normalized to the protein concentration of the sample (Bradford protein assay, Bio-Rad Laboratories).
In the enzyme kinetics experiments, each data point represented the mean of at least three separate observations from cell homogenates. The Michaelis constant and maximal velocity were calculated from a double reciprocal plot (Lineweaver-Burk plot) drawn using Cricket Graph version 1.3.2 with a line of best fit determined from the data. We calculated the Ki for 11ßOH-P and 11-keto-P by plotting the concentration of the progesterone metabolite against the slopes determined from the Lineweaver-Burk plots.
Contractility in Vascular Ring
Preparations
After inducing general anesthesia with pentobarbital
50 mg/kg IP, rats underwent a median sternotomy with rapid
removal of the thoracic aorta. The adventitia was removed, but the
endothelium was left intact. The aorta was cut into
3-mm rings and placed in 2 mL of DMEM/F12 incubated at 37°C under
95% O2-5% CO2 either in the presence or
absence of test steroids for 24 hours before study. For the contraction
measurements, aortic rings were suspended by tungsten wires with 1
g of tension and placed in a vessel bath containing Earle’s balanced
salt solution (Sigma) at 37°C aerated with 95% O2-5%
CO2 at pH 7.4. Vessels were equilibrated for 10 minutes and
then tested with phenylephrine (0.01 µmol/L
to 1 µmol/L) and later a maximal concentration of
angiotensin II (1 µmol/L). The intensity of
the contraction was assessed by use of a Narishige micromanipulator and
model FT03 force transducer (Grass Instrument Co). Measurements were
recorded by a model 79D EEG and Polygraph Data Recording
System (Grass Instrument Co). Adhering to this protocol, we and others
test vessel viability by demonstrating the ability of the vessel to
vigorously contract when exposed to known vasoconstrictors and relax
back to baseline after treatment with acetylcholine.20
Statistical Analysis
Where appropriate, data were expressed as mean±SE and
analyzed by use of a one-way ANOVA to determine differences
among the groups. Comparisons of differences within groups were made by
the Student-Newman-Keuls method, the Tukey-Kramer test, or Student’s
t test; a value of P<.05 was considered
significant.
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Results |
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Specific Directional Effects of Progesterone Metabolites
In the first series of studies, homogenates were prepared from cultures of vascular smooth muscle cells. The homogenates containing the appropriate cofactor were then incubated with either corticosterone or 11-dehydrocorticosterone (10 nmol/L) and 11ßOH-P, 11-keto-P, 3
,5ß-tetrahydroprogesterone, or
progesterone at a concentration of 1 µmol/L for 60
minutes (Fig 1). 11ßOH-P was selective
in its ability to inhibit the forward dehydrogenase reaction while
having no influence on the reverse oxidoreductase reaction. In
contrast, 11-keto-P suppressed only the oxidoreductase reaction. The
3,5ß-tetrahydroprogesterone appeared to be effective in blocking
the enzyme in both directions, whereas the parent compound,
progesterone, impeded only the oxidoreductase reaction.
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The experiments were then repeated, this time in intact vascular aortic rings. In this case, only the effects of 11ßOH-P and 11-keto-P were assessed. Vascular rings were incubated for 24 hours with either corticosterone or 11-dehydrocorticosterone (10 nmol/L); 11ßOH-P or 11-keto-P (1 µmol/L) was also present in the experimental groups. Again, a directionally specific pattern of inhibition was observed (see Table). 11ßOH-P almost completely suppressed the dehydrogenase reaction while having no effect on the oxidoreductase reaction. 11-Keto-P clearly suppressed the oxidoreductase reaction, but it also was active in partially inhibiting the dehydrogenase reaction after the 24-hour incubation.
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Effect of 11ßOH-P and 11-Keto-P on Enzyme Kinetics
Kinetics experiments were conducted using homogenates
of vascular smooth muscle cells. From Lineweaver-Burk plots, the
pattern observed was most consistent with the progesterone
metabolites serving as directionally specific competitive
inhibitors of the enzyme in vascular tissue (Fig 2). 11ßOH-P inhibited the forward
dehydrogenase reaction with a Ki of 0.51
µmol/L, and 11-keto-P blocked the reverse oxidoreductase
reaction with a Ki of 0.68
µmol/L.
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Correlation With the Vascular Contractile Response
To test whether the contractile response of vascular rings would
be affected by manipulating the direction of the enzyme, aortic rings
with endothelium left intact were incubated for 24
hours in the presence or absence of 11ßOH-P (1 µmol/L)
alone, a submaximal concentration of corticosterone (10 nmol/L),
or the combination of both agents. At the end of the 24-hour
incubation, the contractile responses to graded concentrations of
phenylephrine and a maximal concentration of
angiotensin II were determined. Aortic rings exposed to
11ßOH-P alone or corticosterone at a submaximal concentration (10
nmol/L) responded no differently than controls. However, rings
exposed to both the corticosterone and 11ßOH-P demonstrated a
statistically significant increase in the response to 10 nmol/L
and 1 µmol/L phenylephrine (Fig 3). Rings previously incubated with both
corticosterone and 11ßOH-P and then briefly stimulated with
angiotensin II (1 µmol/L) also showed an
increased contractile response compared with corticosterone alone (Fig 4). Thus, when the local dehydrogenase
reaction is inhibited, naturally occurring glucocorticoids appear to be
able to enhance the contractile response of vascular tissue to
phenylephrine and possibly to angiotensin
II.
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The next series of experiments was designed to examine whether preventing the local conversion of the inactive metabolite back to the parent glucocorticoid (oxidoreductase reaction) influences the contractile response. Aortic rings were incubated overnight with either 11-keto-P alone (1 µmol/L), 11-dehydrocorticosterone (0.1 µmol/L), or both. The contractile responses of rings incubated with both 11-dehydrocorticosterone and 11-keto-P and then stimulated with phenylephrine and angiotensin II were clearly diminished. Thus, inhibition of the reverse oxidoreductase reaction exerted a potential effect on blood pressure by attenuating the contractile response of these two vasoactive agents (Figs 4 and 5).
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Discussion |
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The discovery of a bidirectional isoform of 11ß-HSD in vascular smooth muscle has raised the possibility that local steroid metabolism is important in mediating vascular contractility. The regulatory processes involved in local steroid metabolism are complex; 11ß-HSD activity in vascular smooth muscle can be modulated by enzyme expression, cofactor concentration and redox state, and the presence of licorice-like endogenous inhibitors that are synthesized locally or enter the cell from the circulation. With the observation that vascular tissue has the potential to synthesize steroids,16 11ß-OH steroid intermediates formed as precursors of corticosterone seem to be logical candidates for the proposed locally generated licorice-like substances. We now have demonstrated that 11ßOH-P and its derivative, 11-keto-P, are clear examples of 11ß-OH steroid intermediates that are capable of inhibiting this enzyme in a directionally specific manner. Moreover, the pattern of inhibition correlates well with the biological effects of corticosterone in altering the contractile responses to both catecholamines and angiotensin II.
In experiments conducted on cell homogenates, 11ßOH-P and 11-keto-P were directionally specific in their ability to inhibit vascular 11ß-HSD. These studies were performed with short incubation times. When more prolonged incubations were performed (24 hours) with endothelium-intact vascular rings, a similar pattern of directionally specific inhibition was observed. 11ßOH-P almost completely blocked the dehydrogenase reaction with no effect on the oxidoreductase reaction. 11-Keto-P showed effects on the oxidoreductase reaction as expected and surprisingly also influenced the dehydrogenase reaction. The effects of 11-keto-P on the conversion of corticosterone to its metabolite may be explained by the fact that 11-keto-P, a competitive inhibitor, is likely to serve as a substrate for vascular 11ß-HSD and as such could be partially converted back to 11ßOH-P over time. The preferential conversion of 11-keto-P back to 11ßOH-P is consistent with our previous observation that vascular 11ß-HSD is bidirectional, favoring the oxidoreductase reaction in intact cells.13
Like the licorice derivative carbenoxolone, 11ßOH-P together with corticosterone has the potential to augment the contractile response of vascular smooth muscle to known vasoactive agents. By preventing the conversion of corticosterone to its inactive metabolite, the glucocorticoid can exert its full enhancing effect. What has been more surprising is the observation that 11-keto-P, when combined with 11-dehydrocorticosterone, can attenuate the contractile response of aortic rings to phenylephrine and angiotensin II. Presumably, blocking the conversion of 11-dehydrocorticosterone back to corticosterone allows for the attenuated effect on vessel contraction. The full clinical relevance of this finding remains to be explored.
The current series of experiments raises the specter that other endogenously produced, licorice-like compounds may exist that affect glucocorticoid action in vascular tissue and possibly sodium handling in the kidney. Glucocorticoid-induced hypertension, then, may be due to a complex of competing processes involving both renal electrolyte reabsorption and vascular reactivity. Both vascular and renal mechanisms will need to be more thoroughly investigated to develop a complete understanding of this important area.
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Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms |
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Acknowledgments |
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These studies were supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid from the American Heart Association, Rhode Island affiliate (Dr Brem), and a grant from the NIH (No. HL-52972) to Dr Morris. The authors wish to thank Charlene McGloin for her expert secretarial assistance and Nicholas Hill, MD, for his help in the vascular ring studies.
Received September 20, 1996; first decision November 12, 1996; accepted February 24, 1997.
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