Smooth muscle phenotype in aortic diseases: Are there other histopathological markers besides contractile myofibrils?

Smooth muscle phenotype in aortic diseases: Are there other histopathological markers besides contractile myofibrils?

Myocardin is sufficient for a smooth muscle-like contractile phenotype.

BACKGROUND Myocardin (Myocd) is a strong coactivator that binds the serum response factor (SRF) transcription factor over CArG elements embedded within smooth muscle cell (SMC) and cardiac muscle cyto-contractile genes. Here, we sought to ascertain whether Myocd-mediated gene expression confers a structural and physiological cardiac or SMC phenotype. METHODS AND RESULTS Adenoviral-mediated ex...

Bladder smooth muscle organ culture preparation maintains the contractile phenotype.

Smooth muscle cells, when subjected to culture, modulate from a contractile to a secretory phenotype. This has hampered the use of cell culture for molecular techniques to study the regulation of smooth muscle biology. The goal of this study was to develop a new organ culture model of bladder smooth muscle (BSM) that would maintain the contractile phenotype and aid in the study of BSM biology. ...

Myocardin: dominant driver of the smooth muscle cell contractile phenotype.

A distinguishing feature of the smooth muscle cell (SMC) lineage is its remarkable plasticity required for maintenance and adaptation of the cardiovascular system. The biological properties of SMCs are ultimately determined by the orchestrated expression of genes encoding contractile and cytoskeletal proteins, intracellular enzymes, and cell surface ligands and receptors (for review see1,2). In...

Airway Smooth Muscle: Is There a Phenotype Associated with Asthma?