Objective(s): The study aimed to investigate the effects of adrenomedullin (ADM) and proadrenomedullin N- terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) on angiotensin II (AngII)-stimulated proliferation in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Materials and Methods: Thoracic aorta was obtained from Wistar rats and VSMCs were isolated from aorta tissues and then cultured. In vitro cultured VSMCs were stimulated w...

BACKGROUND There are limited data about the influence of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism on the connective tissue component and smooth muscle cells of the thoracic aorta. The aim was to study the histological changes of the wall of the thoracic aorta in the hypothyroid and hyperthyroid rats. Morphometric measurements were also done. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty adult rats were used. They w...

Hyvelin, Jean-Marc, Clare O’Connor, and Paul McLoughlin. Effect of changes in pH on wall tension in isolated rat pulmonary artery: role of the RhoA/Rho-kinase pathway. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 287: L673–L684, 2004. First published February 6, 2004; 10.1152/ajplung.00331.2003.—Pulmonary arteries (PA) are resistant to the vasodilator effects of extracellular acidosis in systemic vessels...

OBJECTIVES The A10 cell line was derived from the thoracic aorta of embryonic rat and is a commonly used model of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). Despite its wide use this cell line has not been well characterized. This is especially important in light of recent evidence of phenotypically distinct cell populations isolated from rat vascular tissue. Therefore, the present study was undertak...

Pulmonary arteries (PA) are resistant to the vasodilator effects of extracellular acidosis in systemic vessels; the mechanism underlying this difference between systemic and pulmonary circulations has not been elucidated. We hypothesized that RhoA/Rho-kinase-mediated Ca2+ sensitization pathway played a greater role in tension development in pulmonary than in systemic vascular smooth muscle and ...

The Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase (NKA) can affect intracellular Ca(2+) concentration regulation via coupling to the Na(+)-Ca(2+) exchanger and may be important in myogenic tone. We previously reported that in mice carrying a transgene for the NKA alpha(2)-isoform in smooth muscle (alpha(2sm+)), the alpha(2)-isoform protein as well as the alpha(1)-isoform (not contained in the transgene) increased to simil...

Tissue, cellular, and subcellular morphometry of the thoracic aorta in 1-, 5- and 11-day-old rats was used to quantify the cellular hypertrophy and proliferation of smooth muscle cells and the absolute increases in volume of elastic laminase and collagen during the early postnatal period. In the 1- to 5-day interval, total wall volume increased 2.9-fold, wall thickness and the number of smooth ...

We investigated effect of microgravity environment during spaceflight on postnatal development of the rheological properties of the aorta in rats. The neonate rats were randomly divided at 7 days of age into the spaceflight, asynchronous ground control, and vivarium control groups (8 pups for one dam). The spaceflight group rats at 9 days of age were exposed to microgravity environment for 16 d...

Experiments were designed to examine whether or not insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), which is produced by vascular cells in response to injury, affects the production of nitric oxide evoked by the inducible nitric oxide synthase in cultures of smooth muscle cells from the rat aorta. Nitric oxide production was assessed indirectly by the measurement of nitrite accumulation and nitric oxide ...

The glycocalyx is a key mechanosensor on the surfaces of vascular cells (endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells), and recently, we reported that the redistribution of the hemodynamic factors in tail-suspended (TS) hindlimb-unloaded rats induces the dimensional adaptation of the endothelial glycocalyx in a regional-dependent manner. In the present study, we investigated the coverage and gene ...