HUMAN VASCULAR SMOOTH MUSCLE CELLS EXHIBIT DE NOVO SYNTHESIS OF TRIACYLGLYCEROL VIA TWO PATHWAYS

2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
John Davies ◽  
Keri Carpenter ◽  
Nikki Figg ◽  
Iain Challis ◽  
Peter Weissberg ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Xuran Chu ◽  
Negah Ahmadvand ◽  
Jin-San Zhang ◽  
Werner Seeger ◽  
Saverio Bellusci ◽  
...  

Vascular remodeling is a prominent feature of pulmonary hypertension. This process involves increased muscularization of already muscularized vessels as well as neo-muscularization of non-muscularized vessels. The cell-of-origin of the newly formed vascular smooth muscle cells has been a subject of intense debate in recent years. Identifying these cells may have important clinical implications since it opens the door for attempts to therapeutically target the progenitor cells and/or reverse the differentiation of their progeny. In this context, the dominant model is that these cells derive from pre-existing smooth muscle cells that are activated in response to injury. In this mini review, we present the evidence that is in favor of this model and, at the same time, highlight other studies indicating that there are alternative cellular sources of vascular smooth muscle cells in pulmonary vascular remodeling.


1989 ◽  
Vol 61 (03) ◽  
pp. 517-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter E Laug ◽  
Ruedi Aebersold ◽  
Ambrose Jong ◽  
Willian Rideout ◽  
Barbara L Bergman ◽  
...  

SummaryLarge arteries have a natural resistance to tumor cell invasion thought to be due to the production of protease inhibitors. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) representing the major cellular part of arteries were isolated from human aortas and grown in tissue culture. These cells were found to produce large amounts of inhibitors of plasminogen activators (PA). Fractionation of VSMC-conditioned medium by heparin-affigel chromatography separated three immunologically and functionally distinct PA inhibitors (PAI), namely PAI-1, PAI-2 and protease-nexin I. The three inhibitors were characterized by functional assays and immunoblotting. PA inhibitor 2 (PAI-2) had little affinity for heparin, whereas PA inhibitor 1 (PAI-l) bound to heparin and was eluted from the column at NaCl concentrations of 0. 1 to 0.35 M. Protease-nexin I, eluted at NaCl concentrations of 0.5 M and higher. Most of the PAI-1 was present in the latent, inactive form. PAI-1 was further purified by ion exchange chromatography on a Mono-Q column. Partial sequencing of the purified PAI-1 confirmed its nature by matching completely with the sequence deduced from the cDNA nucleotide sequence of endothelial cell PAI-1. Thus, human VSMC produce all three presently known PAI and these can be separated in a single heparin affinity purification step.


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