Journal
BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY
Volume 174, Issue 10, Pages 1002-1014Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/bph.13614
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Funding
- Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne
- Australian Postgraduate Award
- Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarship
- Melbourne International Research Scholarship
- Australian Research Council Linkage Grant
- National Health and Medical Research Council
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The peptide hormone relaxin regulates the essential maternal haemodynamic adaptations in early pregnancy through direct actions on the renal and systemic vasculature. These vascular actions of relaxin occur mainly through endothelium-derived NO-mediated vasodilator pathways and improvements in arterial compliance in small resistance-size arteries. This work catalysed a plethora of studies which revealed quite heterogeneous responses across the different regions of the vasculature, and also uncovered NO-independent mechanisms of relaxin action. In this review, we first describe the role of endogenous relaxin in maintaining normal vascular function, largely referring to work in pregnant and male relaxin-deficient animals. We then discuss the diversity of mechanisms mediating relaxin action in different vascular beds, including the involvement of prostanoids, VEGF, endothelium-derived hyperpolarisation and antioxidant activity in addition to the classic NO-mediated vasodilatory pathway. We conclude the review with current perspectives on the vascular remodelling capabilities of relaxin.
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