Contractile function of endothelin receptors in cerebral arteries.

<p>Graphs showing concentration-contraction curves elicited by the cumulative application of endothelin-1 (ET-1) to basilar artery (BA) (<b>A</b>), middle cerebral artery (MCA) (<b>B</b>) and anterior cerebral artery (ACA) (<b>C</b>) segments from control-operated rats (sham) and rats subjected to 15, 10 or 2 minutes of transient forebrain ischemia (15 min, 10 min, and 2 min, respectively). (<b>D</b>) Shows contractile responses to the ET_B-specific agonist sarafatoxin 6c (S6c) in ACA segments from sham-operated rats and rats subjected to 10 or 15 minutes of transient forebrain ischemia. Values are expressed as means ± SEM in percentage of contractions evoked by 63 mM of K+. Significant differences between sham and 15 minutes ischemia are determined by 2-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s posttest indicated by the asterisks on the right side respective above the curves.