During embryogenesis, smooth muscle cells of the gut differentiate from mesenchymal cells derived from splanchnic mesoderm. We have isolated a gene involved in the differentiation of smooth muscle cells in the gut using differential display between the chicken proventriculus in which the smooth muscle layer develops poorly and the gizzard in which smooth muscles develop abundantly. The protein ...

In the present study, we demonstrated gene transcription of c-fms in smooth muscle cells isolated from an experimental rabbit model of arteriosclerosis (intimal smooth muscle cells), although there was no gene transcription of c-fms detected in medial smooth muscle cells. On immunocytochemical analysis, both types of smooth muscle cells similarly reacted with an antibody specific to muscle cell...

RATIONALE Smooth muscle precursor cells have previously been reported to reside in bone marrow and in the circulation, but little is currently known regarding the proximate stimuli for smooth muscle cell differentiation of these putative progenitors. OBJECTIVE Because local thrombin generation occurs as an initial response to vascular injury, we hypothesized that thrombin may influence the di...

For 3 decades, terms such as synthetic phenotype and contractile phenotype have been used to imply the existence of a specific mechanism for smooth muscle cell (SMC) responses to injury. In this issue of the JCI, Hendrix et al. offer a far more precise approach to examining the mechanisms of SMC responses to injury, focused not on general changes in phenotype but on effects of injury on a singl...

BACKGROUND Halothane relaxes airway smooth muscle, in part, by decreasing the force produced for a given intracellular [Ca(2+)] (i.e., Ca(2+) sensitivity) during muscarinic stimulation, an effect produced by a decrease in regulatory myosin light-chain (rMLC) phosphorylation. The authors tested the hypothesis that halothane reduces rMLC phosphorylation during muscarinic stimulation at constant i...

Bunium persicum (Boiss.) is an economically important medicinal plant growing wild in arid regions in Iran. The essential oil of B. persicum (EOBP) was extracted using hydrodistillation. A total of eighteen compounds, representing 96.14 % of the oil was identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS).The main compounds were cuminaldehyde (23.04 %), gamma-terpinene (14.48 %), trans-3...

AIM To investigate an extent of smooth muscle differentiation of pericryptal fibroblasts. METHODS Expression of high molecular weight caldesmon (h-CD) and alpha smooth muscle actin was investigated in 123 invasive colorectal adenocarcinomas and their surrounding non-neoplastic tissues. RESULTS The monoclonal antibody to h-CD, which showed predominantly positive immunostaining in well differ...

TEF and RTEF-1 Binding to the Smooth Muscle -Actin Gene Distinguishes Myofibroblasts and Adult Smooth Muscle Cells Adult smooth muscle cells are highly plastic and can exhibit a range of phenotypes in response to different environmental and developmental cues. Their phenotypes can range from quiescent highly contractile cells with high levels of characteristic contractile protein isoforms, to h...