Lung Vascular Cell Heterogeneity: Endothelium, Smooth Muscle, and Fibroblasts

Symposium for Smooth Muscle and Vascular Endothelium.

Non-muscle myosin isoforms and cell heterogeneity in developing rabbit vascular smooth muscle.

A panel of monoclonal antibodies specific for cytoskeletal and cytocontractile protein markers has been used to study the expression of vimentin, desmin and alpha-smooth muscle (SM) actin, as well as non-muscle (NM) and SM myosin isoforms, in developing rabbit aorta. Immunofluorescence experiments show that in the vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC): (1) vimentin and alpha-actin of SM-type are h...

Role of endothelium in responses of vascular smooth muscle.

A FEW years ago, we discovered that the relaxation by acetylcholine (ACh) of isolated preparations of arteries precontracted by addition of an exogenous stimulating agent (e.g., norepinephrine) is strictly dependent on the presence of endothelial cells (Furchgott and Zawadzki, 1980a, 1980b; Furchgott et al., 1981; Furchgott, 1981). Our initial study was on the descending thoracic aorta of the r...

Cell size, cell cycle, and a-smooth muscle actin expression by primary human lung fibroblasts

Uhal, Bruce D., Carlos Ramos, Iravati Joshi, Antonio Bifero, Annie Pardo, and Moises Selman. Cell size, cell cycle, and a-smooth muscle actin expression by primary human lung fibroblasts. Am. J. Physiol. 275 (Lung Cell. Mol. Physiol. 19): L998–L1005, 1998.—Primary human lung fibroblasts were separated into small ( group I), intermediate ( group II), and large ( group III) subpopulations by unit...

Cell size, cell cycle, and α-smooth muscle actin expression by primary human lung fibroblasts.

Primary human lung fibroblasts were separated into small ( group I), intermediate ( group II), and large ( group III) subpopulations by unit gravity sedimentation (1 G). The three subsets retained differences in cell size for up to 15 days of primary culture. Flow cytometric (fluorescence-activated cell sorter) measurements of forward-angle light scatter agreed well with fibroblast volume measu...