Vasoactive intestinal peptide stimulation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate formation: further evidence for a role of nitric oxide synthase and cytosolic guanylate cyclase in rat pinealocytes.

In the rat pineal gland vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and beta-adrenergic agonists stimulate cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) formation and their action is amplified by alpha 1-adrenergic agonists. Since beta-adrenergic stimulation of cGMP is suggested to involve activation of nitric oxide (NO) synthase and NO-mediated activation of cytosolic guanylate cyclase (GC), we investigated the effects of the NO synthase inhibitor N-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) and of the cytosolic GC inhibitor methylene blue (MB) on VIP receptor-stimulated cGMP formation. Both L-NMMA and MB depressed VIP-induced cGMP formation as well as alpha 1-adrenergic potentiation of VIP-stimulated cGMP formation …