Fig. 3

Effect of empagliflozin treatment on the endothelium-dependent relaxation and endothelium-dependent contractile response to acetylcholine in the lean control and ZSF1 groups. Arterial rings from the main mesenteric artery with endothelium were suspended in organ baths containing oxygenated Krebs buffer. For concentration-relaxation curves, rings were precontracted with phenylephrine (1 μM) before the addition of increasing concentrations of either acetylcholine (a) or the NO donor sodium nitroprusside (c). b Endothelium-dependent contractile responses (EDCF) were studied in the presence of N^ω-nitro-l-arginine (300 μM) and UCL-1684 plus TRAM-34 (1 μM each) to prevent the formation of NO- and EDH-mediated relaxations, respectively. Rings were precontracted to about 20–30% of the maximal contraction with phenylephrine before the addition of increasing concentrations of acetylcholine. Values are shown as mean ± SEM of 8–10 rats per group. *P < 0.05 vs control group and ^#P < 0.05 vs ZSF1 group