The role of adenosine in hypercarbic hyperemia: in vivo and in vitro studies in adenosine 2A receptor knockout and wild-type mice

Object The authors tested the hypothesis that adenosine, acting through the A2A receptor, is not involved in hypercarbic hyperemia by assessing the effects of increased PaCO2 on cerebral blood flow (CBF) in vivo in wild-type and A2A receptor knockout mice. In addition, they evaluated the effect of abluminal pH changes in vitro on the diameter of isolated perfused penetrating arterioles harvested from wild-type and A2A receptor knockout mice. Methods The authors evaluated in a blinded fashion the CBF response during transient (60-second) hypercapnic (7% CO2) hypercarbia in anesthetized, ventilated C57Bl/6 wild-type and adenosine A2A receptor knockout mice. They also evaluated the hypercarbic response in the absence and presence of the nonselective and selective adenosine antagonists. Results Cerebral blood flow was measured using laser Doppler flowmetry. There were no differences between the CBF responses to hypercarbia in the wild-type and the knockout mice. Moreover, the hypercarbic hyperemia response was not affected by the adenosine receptor antagonists. The authors also tested the response to alteration in abluminal pH in isolated perfused, pressurized, penetrating arterioles (average diameter 63.3 ± 3.6 μm) harvested from wild-type (6 mice) and knockout (5 mice) animals. Arteriolar dilation in response to a decrease in abluminal pH, simulating the change in vivo during hypercarbia, was similar in wild-type (15.9 ± 2.6%) and A2A receptor knockout (17.7 ± 1.3%) mice. With abluminal application of CGS 21680 (10−6 M), an A2A receptor agonist, wild-type arterioles dilated in an expected manner (9.8 ± 0.7%), whereas A2A receptor knockout vessels had minimal response. Conclusions The results of the in vivo and in vitro studies in wild-type and A2A receptor knockout mice support the authors' hypothesis that hypercarbic vasodilation does not involve an adenosine A2A receptor–related mechanism.