Tardif K, Hertig V, Duquette N, Villeneuve L, El-Hamamsy I, Tanguay J, Calderone A. Nestin upregulation characterizes vascular remodeling secondary to hypertension in the rat. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 308: H1265–H1274, 2015. First published March 13, 2015; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00804.2014.—Proliferation and hypertrophy of vascular smooth muscle cells represent hallmark features of vessel ...

Mitochondria are morphologically dynamic organelles which undergo fission and fusion processes. Our previous study found that arterial constriction was always accompanied by increased mitochondrial fission in smooth muscle cells, whereas inhibition of mitochondrial fission in smooth muscle cells was associated with arterial relaxation. Here, we used the typical vasorelaxants, verapamil and phen...

Expression of epithelial cytokeratins type 8, 18 and 19 can be used to study smooth muscle cell differentiation during development. We studied the differentiation of smooth muscle cells in the ductus arteriosus before and during intimal thickening and compared the changes occurring in this vessel with the adjoining elastic ascending and descending aorta and the pulmonary trunk. The ductus arter...

RATIONALE Vascular smooth muscle turnover has important implications for blood vessel repair and for the development of cardiovascular diseases, yet lack of specific transgenic animal models has prevented it's in vivo analysis. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to characterize the dynamics and mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle turnover from the earliest stages of embryonic developm...

Smooth muscle myosin heavy chains (MHC) exist in multiple isoforms. Rabbit smooth muscle contain at least three types of MHC isoforms; SM1 (204 kDa), SM2 (200 kDa) and SMemb (200 kDa). SM1 and SM2 are specific to smooth muscle, but SMemb is a nonmuscle-type MHC abundantly expressed in the embryonic aorta and in activated mesenchymal cells. We previously reported that these three MHC isoforms ar...

A membrane glycoprotein complex was isolated and purified from human smooth muscle by detergent solubilization and affinity chromatography on collagen-Sepharose. The complex was identified as VLA-1 integrin and consisted of two subunits of 195 and 130 kD in SDS-PAGE. Liposomes containing the VLA-1 integrin adhered to surfaces coated with type I, II, III, and IV collagens, Clq subcomponent of th...

Using quin 2 microfluorometry of porcine vascular smooth muscle cells in primary culture at 25 degrees C, we investigated differences in cytosolic calcium transients between epicardial coronary artery and aorta. Both in coronary arterial and aortic smooth muscle cells, histamine induced transient and dose-dependent elevations of cytosolic calcium concentrations, with a similar time course and E...

In the present study we reported the expression of the 5-HT2C receptor (5-HT2C-R) in the aorta and the pulmonary artery in rats exposed to hypoxia, and examined its role in vascular smooth muscle cells. Immunochemistry, quantitative RT-PCR, and western blot were used to examine 5-HT2C-R expression. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) was used to explore the role of 5-HT2C-R in vascular smooth muscle ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Endothelin-1 is implicated in the pathogenesis of hypertension, but the underlying mechanisms remained elusive. Our previous study found that inhibition of mitochondrial fission of smooth muscle cells suppressed phenylephrine- and high K+-induced artery constriction. Here, we studied the effects of mitochondrial fission inhibitors on endothelin-1-induced vasoconstriction. METH...

MicroRNAs have emerged as regulators of smooth muscle cell phenotype with a role in smooth muscle-related disease. Studies have shown that miR-143 and miR-145 are the most highly expressed microRNAs in smooth muscle cells, controlling differentiation and function. The effect of miR-143/145 knockout has been established in the vasculature but not in smooth muscle from other organs. Using knockou...