Journal of anesthesia
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Journal of anesthesia · Mar 1996
Effects of phenol on vascular smooth muscle in rabbit mesenteric resistance arteries.
Although phenol has long been used clinically as a neurolytic agent or as a preservative for injections, little information is available regarding its direct vascular action. We therefore studied the effects of phenol (0.1 μM-2mM) on isolated rabbit small mesenteric arteries, using isometric tension recording methods. All experiments were performed on endothelium-denuded strips. ⋯ The results suggest that phenol stimulates Ca(2+) release from intracellular Ca(2+) stores, which are sensitive to both caffine and NA in this resistance artery. The effect does not appear to reflect a toxic effect on vascular smooth muscle. It seems unlikely that phenol causes adverse hemodynamic changes because of the observed direct vascular action.