The study was conducted on 30 New Zealand rabbits weighing 3-4 kg from which sample strips of the abdominal aorta were collected. The study investigated the in vitro reaction of rabbit aorta smooth muscle to ligands binding to beta-adrenergic receptors. The response of aortic strips to beta-adrenergic receptor agonists (dobutamine, isoproterenol, salbutamol) and the influence of beta-adrenergic...

A procedure for dissociating the rabbit aorta into single, functional smooth muscle cells is described. After removal of adventitia and intima, slices of media were incubated with purified collagenase, elastase, and soybean trypsin inhibitor in a Krebs-Ringer buffer modified with Hepes, amino acids, and a [Ca2+] of 0.2 mM. After enzymatic digestion and mechanical shear, the yield of dispersed c...

OBJECTIVE to examine the expression of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1) and the cell kinetics of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) at the neck of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). MATERIALS AND METHODS expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin and TGF-beta1 was evaluated by immunostaining, and cell kinetics were estimated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick ...

OBJECTIVE Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling is required for normal vascular development. We aimed to discover the role of TGF-β signaling in embryonic smooth muscle cells (SMCs). METHODS AND RESULTS We bred mice with smooth muscle (SM) 22α-Cre and Tgfbr2(flox) alleles to generate embryos in which the type II TGF-β receptor (TGFBR2; required for TGF-β signaling) was deleted in SMC...

Advanced glycation end products (AGE) in tissues are important for the central pathological features of diabetic complication. Although AGE bind to several cell-surface sites, resulting in altered cellular functions, receptor for AGE (RAGE) appears to have a central role. We examined AGE accumulation and RAGE expression in the aorta and heart of rats with streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes, ...

BACKGROUND Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), released by Gram-negative bacteria, cause vascular expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) leading to nitric oxide (NO) production and septic shock. Human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (LL-37) can bind and neutralize LPS. We wanted to study whether LL-37 affects LPS or interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta)-induced production, release and function o...

The polypeptide profiles of bovine vascular endothelial cells (from pulmonary artery and descending aorta), smooth muscle cells (from pulmonary artery) and fibroblast cells (from skin and lung) were examined by high-resolution two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic techniques. A set of polypeptides (molecular weights between 43 X 10(3) and 47 X 10(3) and pI values from 6.0-4.8, resp...

Immunofluorescence microscopic methods served to demonstrate the production of the following matrix components in cultures of vascular smooth muscle cells from rat aorta: fibronectin; nidogen; heparan sulphate-proteoglycan (HS-PG); laminin; and collagen types I, III, IV, V, and VI. A time-dependence of synthesis and secretion could be shown for a number of components of the extracellular matrix...

In nits with renal hypertension, smooth muscle cells in the wall of the aorta appear to have more water, sodium, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus per unit of cell solids than similar cells in normotensive rats. When the blood pressure of a few hypertensive rats dropped to normal as a result of a low sodium diet, the potassium and phosphorus in the arterial cells also appeared to deci'ease to...