Urocortin-Induced Decrease in Ca 2+ Sensitivity of Contraction in Mouse Tail Arteries Is Attributable to cAMP-Dependent Dephosphorylation of MYPT1 and Activation of Myosin Light Chain Phosphatase

Abstract

Urocortin, a vasodilatory peptide related to corticotropin-releasing factor, may be an endogenous regulator of blood pressure. In vitro, rat tail arteries are relaxed by urocortin by a cAMP-mediated decrease in myofilament Ca²⁺ sensitivity through a still unclear mechanism. Here we show that contraction of intact mouse tail arteries induced with 42 mmol/L KCl or 0.5 μmol/L noradrenaline was associated with a ≈2-fold increase in the phosphorylation of the regulatory subunit of myosin phosphatase (SMPP-1M), MYPT1, at Thr696, which was reversed in arteries relaxed with urocortin. Submaximally (pCa 6.1) contracted mouse tail arteries permeabilized with α-toxin were relaxed with urocortin by 39±3% at constant [Ca²⁺], which was associated with a decrease in myosin light chain (MLC₂₀^Ser19), MYPT1^Thr696, and MYPT1^Thr850 phosphorylation by 60%, 28%, and 52%, respectively. The Rho-associated kinase (ROK) inhibitor Y-27632 decreased MYPT1 phosphorylation by a similar extent. Inhibition of PP-2A with 3 nmol/L okadaic acid had no effect on MYPT1 phosphorylation, whereas inhibition of PP-1 with 3 μmol/L okadaic acid prevented dephosphorylation. Urocortin increased the rate of dephosphorylation of MLC₂₀^Ser19 ≈2.2-fold but had no effect on the rate of contraction under conditions of, respectively, inhibited kinase and phosphatase activities. The effect of urocortin on MLC₂₀^Ser19 and MYPT1 phosphorylation was blocked by Rp-8-CPT-cAMPS and mimicked by Sp-5,6-DCl-cBIMPS. In summary, these results provide evidence that Ca²⁺-independent relaxation by urocortin can be attributed to a cAMP-mediated increased activity of SMPP-1M which at least in part is attributable to a decrease in the inhibitory phosphorylation of MYPT1.