Title: vasorelaxation
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - vasorelaxation
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.12160
Status: current

Definition
Increase in the diameter of the lumen of the blood vessels as a result of relaxation of smooth muscles in the vessel walls.

Note
This results in a decrease in vascular resistance followed by a decrease of blood pressure.

Related Term
- vasoconstriction: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12157

Source
- PAC, 2015, 87, 841. 'IUPAC Glossary of terms used in neurotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2015)' on page 915 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0103)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12160/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12160/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12160/xml

Citation: Citation: 'vasorelaxation' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.12160
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-14T14:35:50+00:00