Vasoactive intestinal peptide stimulates mucus secretion, but nitric oxide has no effect on mucus secretion in the ferret trachea

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and nitric oxide (NO) are neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of bronchial and pulmonary vascular tone. Published studies of the effects of VIP on airway mucus secretion have yielded conflicting results. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of VIP on mucus secretion in the ferret trachea and if this effect was influenced by NO. We used a sandwich enzyme-linked lectin assay to measure mucin secretion and a turbidimetric assay to measure lysozyme (serous cell) secretion from ferret tracheal segments. VIP (10(-7) M) increased mucin secretion over 2 h. VIP (10(-9) to 10(-5) M) stimulated mucin secretion in a dose-dependent fashion. VIP-induced mucin secretion was partially blocked by a VIP receptor antagonist (a chimeric VIP-pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide analog, VIP receptor antagonist) at a 10-fold excess concentration. At all concentrations tested, neither NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, an inhibitor of NO synthase, nor S-nitroso-N-acetyl-penicillamine, an NO donor, had any significant effect on constitutive or VIP-induced mucus secretion. We conclude that VIP-stimulated mucin and lysozyme secretion was both time dependent and dose dependent and that NO neither stimulates nor inhibits mucus secretion in the ferret trachea.