“…NPY activates post-junctional Y 1 receptors to directly contract vascular smooth muscle as well as potentiate the contractile effects of both norepinephrine and ATP in a variety of in vitro preparations including the rat mesenteric bed, rat portal vein, rat and rabbit cerebral vessels, rat, dog and guinea pig coronary vessels and also in vivo in the pithed rat (Westfall et al , 1987b, Westfall et al , 1988, Westfall et al , 1990b, Wahlestedt & Reis, 1993, Grundemar & Hakanson, 1994, Zukowska-Grojec, 1995, Westfall, 2004). The development and use of specific NPY antagonists (Abounader et al , 1995, Myers et al , 1995, Leban et al , 1995, Hegde et al , 1995, Kirby et al , 1995, Malmstrom et al , 2002, Westfall, 2004) has shown that NPY is an endogenous neurotransmitter at the sympathetic neurovascular junction. NPY plays a physiological role in the regulation of vascular tone in the guinea pig vena cava and the rat mesenteric bed, and in vivo in whole pigs and the pithed rat (Malmstrom & Lundberg, 1995, Lundberg & Modin, 1995, Kennedy et al , 1997, Han et al , 1998b), as well as a pathophysiological role during stress and hypertension in both rats and humans (Erlinge et al , 1992, Michel & Rascher, 1995, Zukowska-Grojec et al , 1996, Han et al , 1998a).…”