Cardiovascular system

Abstract

Some of the earliest observations on the effects of purines on the cardiovascular system date from the 1920’s when Drury and Szent-Gyorgi (122) demonstrated potent effects in a variety of species. The basic observations made at that time of inhibitory effects upon the heart and blood vessels causing relaxation and vasodilatation lead subsequently to the development by Berne of a general hypothesis of adenosine function in the cardiovascular system (26). This hypothesis, broadly stated, is that adenosine has an autoregulatory function to compensate for increases in tissue activity by producing a homeostatic vasodilatation and therefore increase of blood supply, nutrient supply and energy supply to the tissues involved. This hypothesis has been applied particularly to the coronary circulation and the cerebral circulation but much of the basic pharmacology of purines in other vascular beds has been based around this general hypothesis.