Angiotensin II enhances the development of atherosclerotic lesion in which cellular proliferation and/or migration are critical steps. Although cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, p27, and Rho/Rho-kinase pathway have recently been implicated as factors regulating these events cooperatively, their role in vivo has not been fully elucidated. We evaluated the contribution of p27 and Rho-kinase to a...

Increased protein synthesis is the cardinal feature of cardiac hypertrophy. We have studied angiotensin II (ANG II)-dependent regulation of eukaryotic elongation factor-2 (eEF-2), an essential component of protein translation required for polypeptide elongation, in rat neonatal cardiac myocytes. eEF2 is fully active in its dephosphorylated state and is inhibited following phosphorylation by eEF...

Previous studies utilizing crude brain homogenates have shown that forebrain ischemia results in inhibition of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II) activity without large-scale proteolysis of the enzyme. In this report, a monoclonal antibody (1C3-3D6) directed against the beta- (60-kDa) subunit of CaM kinase II that does not recognize ischemically altered enzyme was ut...

Isolated transcription complexes contain a protein kinase that phosphorylates the heptapeptide repeats of the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of the RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) large subunit in an apparently promoter-dependent manner. We now show that the essential features of this reaction can be reproduced in a reconstituted system containing three macromolecular components: a fusion protein co...

We have tested the effects of serum-stimulated growth of quiescent WI38 human lung fibroblasts on cellular casein kinase II (CK-II) activity. Using the casein kinase II synthetic substrate RRREEETEEE we find a transient 6-fold elevation in CK-II activity in cell homogenates within 30 min following serum stimulation. Additional cycles of CK-II activation and inactivation are seen at 12 and 24 h ...

The Ca2 /calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) has morphogenic functions in neurons not shared by the isoform. CaMKII contains three exons (v1, v3, and v4) not present in the CaMKII gene, and two of these exons (v1 and v4) are subject to differential alternative splicing. We show here that CaMKII , but not , mediated bundling of F-actin filaments in vitro. Most importantly, incl...

We investigated the ganglionic effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) and the signal transduction involved in the cardiac sympathetic ganglia by the direct administration of agents to the ganglia through the right subclavian artery and monitoring the heart rate as an indicator of the ganglionic function in pithed dogs. Ang II given i.a. caused increases in the heart rate, which was inhibited by the...

The structural modification of dendritic spines plays a critical role in synaptic plasticity. CaMKII is a pivotal molecule involved in this process through both kinase-dependent and independent structural functions, but the respective contributions of these two functions to the synaptic plasticity remain unclear. We demonstrate that the transient interplay between the kinase and structural func...