Smooth muscle relaxing drugs and guinea pig ileum.

The effects of various smooth muscle relaxing drugs on contractile responses to acetylcholine (ACh), Ba2+ and Ca2+, and on the tissue cyclic AMP levels were examined in the guinea pig ileum. Papaverine and theophylline caused a decrease both in the maximum height and the slope of dose-response curves induced by the three stimulants, and an increase in the cyclic AMP levels. Diltiazem and D-600 produced a decrease in the maximum and the slope of ACh and Ba2+ dose-response curves, shifted the Ca2+ dose-response curves to higher concentrations, in a parallel manner, but failed to change the cyclic AMP levels. Etomidoline and benactyzine shifted the curves for the three stimulants in parallel to the right, but at higher concentrations depressed the maximum of ACh and Ba2+ responses with a further parallel shift. These drugs exerted little influence on the basal level of tissue cyclic AMP, but etomidoline significantly depressed the Ba2+ -induced increase in cyclic AMP level. The smooth muscle relaxing drugs used could be classified in three types, thereby suggesting that there are at least three different mechanisms involved in smooth muscle relaxing action.