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The metabolic dissipation in Murray's minimum energy hypothesis includes only the blood metabolism. The metabolic dissipation of the vascular tree, however, should also include the metabolism of passive and active components of the vessel wall. In this study, we extend the metabolic dissipation to include blood metabolism, as well as passive and active components of the vessel wall. The analysis is extended to the entire vascular arterial tree rather than a single vessel as in Murray's formulation. The calculations are based on experimentally measured morphological data of coronary artery network and the longitudinal distribution of blood pressure along the tree. Whereas the model includes multiple dissipation sources, the total metabolic consumption of a complex vascular tree is found to remain approximately proportional to the cumulative arterial volume of the unit. This implies that the previously described scaling relations for the various morphological features (volume, length, diameter, and flow) remain unchanged under the generalized condition of metabolic requirements of blood and blood vessel wall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acetylcholine stimulates the release of endothelium-derived arachidonic acid (AA) metabolites including prostacyclin and epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), which relax coronary arteries. However, mechanisms of endothelial cell (EC AA activation remain undefined. We propose that 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) plays an important role in this pathway. An AA metabolite isolated from bovine coronary ECs was identified as 2-AG by mass spectrometry. In ECs pretreated with the fatty acid amidohydrolase inhibitor diazomethylarachidonyl ketone (DAK; 20 μmol/l), methacholine (10 μmol/l)-stimulated 2-AG release was blocked by the phospholipase C inhibitor U-73122 (10 μmol/l) or the diacylglycerol lipase inhibitor RHC-80267 (40 μmol/l). In U-46619-preconstricted bovine coronary arterial rings, 2-AG relaxations averaging 100% at 10 μmol/l were inhibited by endothelium removal, by DAK, by the hydrolase inhibitor methyl arachidonylfluorophosphate (10 μmol/l), by the cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin (10 μmol/l), but not by the CB1 cannabinoid receptor antagonist SR-141716 (1 μmol/l). The cytochrome P-450 inhibitor SKF-525a (10 μmol/l) and the 14,15-epoxyeicosa-5Z-enoic acid EET antagonist (14,15-EEZE; 10 μmol/l) further attenuated the indomethacin-resistant relaxations. The nonhydrolyzable 2-AG analogs noladin ether, 2-AG amide, and 14,15-EET glycerol amide did not induce relaxation. N-nitro-L-arginine-resistant relaxations to methacholine were also inhibited by U-73122, RHC-80267, and DAK. 14,15-EET glycerol ester increased opening of large-conductance K+ channels 12-fold in cell-attached patches of isolated smooth muscle cells and induced relaxations averaging 95%. These results suggest that methacholine stimulates EC 2-AG production through phospholipase C and diacylglycerol lipase activation. 2-AG is further hydrolyzed to AA, which is metabolized to vasoactive eicosanoids. These studies reveal a role for 2-AG in EC AA release and the regulation of coronary tone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]