Antivasoconstrictor effect of the neuroprotective agent dexrazoxane in rat aorta

Dexrazoxane is used clinically to reduce the cardiotoxicity of anthracycline cancer chemotherapeutic agents, acting by an iron-chelating antioxidant mechanism. In a study designed to explore the possible mechanism of the recently described neuroprotective effect of the drug in cerebral ischemia, its influence on vascular reactivity was determined in rat aortic rings. Dexrazoxane was found to be devoid of direct contractile or relaxant activity and to have no influence on responses to acetylcholine or histamine (relaxation), or to angiotensin or serotonin (contraction). In contrast, it decreased contractions to norepinephrine, as evidenced by rightward displacement of the concentration–response curves. The effect was prevented by the removal of the endothelium and by the α2-adrenoceptor antagonist yohimbine; it was partially antagonized by the endothelium-derived depolarizing factor inhibitor clotrimazole, but was not affected by l-NAME or indomethacin, inhibitors of endothelial nitric oxide and prostacyclin production. The anti-contractile effect did not occur in rings stimulated with the α1-adrenoceptor agonist phenylephrine. It was concluded that dexrazoxane opposes norepinephrine vascular contraction by enhancing endothelial α2-adrenoceptor-mediated release of relaxing factor(s). The drug could thus offset the deleterious vasoconstriction elicited by the increased circulating catecholamines present during cerebral ischemia, and by this mechanism produce neuroprotection.