Microlymphatics and lymph flow

1990 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 987-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Schmid-Schonbein

A careful review of several different organs shows that with the information available today the beginnings of the microlymphatics in the tissue consist of endothelialized tubes only. Lymphatic smooth muscle within the collecting lymphatics appears further downstream, in some organs only outside the parenchyma. This particular anatomic picture has been observed in many different mammalian organs and in humans. The nonmuscular, so-called initial, lymphatics are the site of interstitial fluid absorption that requires only small and transient pressure gradients from the interstitium into the initial lymphatics. A fundamental question concerns the mechanism that causes expansion and compression of the initial lymphatics. I presented several realistic proposals based on information currently on hand relevant to the tissue surrounding the initial lymphatics. To achieve a continuous lymphatic output, periodic (time variant) tissue stresses need to be applied. They include arterial pressure pulsations; arteriolar vasomotion; intestinal smooth muscle contractions and motilities; skeletal muscle contraction; skin tension; and external compression, such as during walking, running, or massage, respiration, bronchiole constriction, periodic tension in tendon, contraction and relaxation of the diaphragm, tension in the pleural space during respiration, and contractions of the heart. The nonmuscular initial lymphatic system drains into a set of contractile collecting lymphatics, which by way of intrinsic smooth muscle propel lymph fluid. The exact transition between noncontractile and contractile lymphatics has been established only in a limited number of organs and requires further exploration. Retrograde flow of lymph fluid is prevented by valves. There are the usual macroscopic bileaflet valves in the initial and collecting lymphatics and also microscopic lymphatic endothelial valves on the wall of the initial lymphatics. The latter appear to prevent convective reflow into the interstitium during lymphatic compression. Many of the lymph pump mechanisms have been proposed in the past, and most authors agree that these mechanisms influence lymph flow. However, the decisive experiments have not been carried out to establish to what degree these mechanisms are sufficient to explain lymph flow rates in vivo. Because individual organs have different extrinsic pumps at the level of the initial lymphatics, future experiments need to be designed such that each pump mechanism is examined individually so as to make it possible to evaluate the additive effect on the resultant whole organ lymph flow.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

1996 ◽  
Vol 271 (5) ◽  
pp. C1594-C1602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Wang ◽  
F. M. Pavalko ◽  
S. J. Gunst

Regulation of the attachment of actin filaments to the cell membrane at membrane-associated dense plaque (MADP) sites could allow smooth muscle cells to modulate their cytostructure in response to changes in external stress. In this study, changes in the tyrosine phosphorylation of the MADP protein paxillin were measured by Western blot during the contraction and relaxation of tracheal smooth muscle strips. Tyrosine phosphorylation of paxillin increased by three- to fourfold with a time course similar to force development during contractile stimulation with acetylcholine (ACh), 5-hydroxytryptamine, and KCl and decreased during washout of contractile stimuli and during relaxation induced by forskolin. Immunoprecipitation of muscle extracts with multiple rounds of anti-phosphotyrosine antibody removed approximately 20% of the total paxillin in resting muscles and approximately 60% of paxillin in muscles maximally stimulated with ACh. These results provide the first evidence associating the tyrosine phosphorylation of paxillin with the active contraction of smooth muscle or with any functional response of a fully differentiated tissue in vivo. The results are consistent with a role for MADP proteins in the regulation of force development in smooth muscle.


2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 718-720
Author(s):  
Lucia Corina Dima-Cozma ◽  
Sebastian Cozma ◽  
Delia Hinganu ◽  
Cristina Mihaela Ghiciuc ◽  
Florin Mitu

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are the primary mediators of extracellular remodeling and their properties are useful in diagnostic evaluation and treatment. They are zinc-dependent proteases. MMPs have been involved in the mechanisms of atherosclerosis in various arterial areas, ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation and aortic aneurysms. Recently, MMP9 has been implicated in dyslipidemia and cholesterol synthesis by the liver. Increased MMP expression and activity has been associated with neointimal arterial lesions and migration of smooth muscle cells after arterial balloon dilation, while MMP inhibition decreases smooth muscle cell migration in vivo and in vitro.


1995 ◽  
Vol 268 (2) ◽  
pp. L201-L206 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Vannier ◽  
T. L. Croxton ◽  
L. S. Farley ◽  
C. A. Hirshman

Hypoxia dilates airways in vivo and reduces active tension of airway smooth muscle in vitro. To determine whether hypoxia impairs Ca2+ entry through voltage-dependent channels (VDC), we tested the ability of dihydropyridines to modulate hypoxia-induced relaxation of KCl- and carbamyl choline (carbachol)-contracted porcine bronchi. Carbachol- or KCl-contracted bronchial rings were exposed to progressive hypoxia in the presence or absence of 1 microM BAY K 8644 (an L-type-channel agonist). In separate experiments, rings were contracted with carbachol or KCl, treated with nifedipine (a VDC antagonist), and finally exposed to hypoxia. BAY K 8644 prevented hypoxia-induced relaxation in KCl-contracted bronchi. Nifedipine (10(-5) M) totally relaxed KCl- contracted bronchi. Carbachol-contracted bronchi were only partially relaxed by nifedipine but were completely relaxed when the O2 concentration of the gas was reduced from 95 to 0%. These data indicate that hypoxia can reduce airway smooth muscle tone by limiting entry of Ca2+ through a dihydropyridine-sensitive pathway, but that other mechanisms also contribute to hypoxia-induced relaxation of carbachol-contracted bronchi.


Blood ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
MC Galmiche ◽  
VE Koteliansky ◽  
J Briere ◽  
P Herve ◽  
P Charbord

In human long-term marrow cultures connective tissue-forming stromal cells are an essential cellular component of the adherent layer where granulomonocytic progenitors are generated from week 2 onward. We have previously found that most stromal cells in confluent cultures were stained by monoclonal antibodies directed against smooth muscle- specific actin isoforms. The present study was carried out to evaluate the time course of alpha-SM-positive stromal cells and to search for other cytoskeletal proteins specific for smooth muscle cells. It was found that the expression of alpha-SM in stromal cells was time dependent. Most of the adherent spindle-shaped, vimentin-positive stromal cells observed during the first 2 weeks of culture were alpha- SM negative. On the contrary, from week 3 to week 7, most interdigitated stromal cells contained stress fibers whose backbone was made of alpha-SM-positive microfilaments. In addition, in confluent cultures, other proteins specific for smooth muscle were detected: metavinculin, h-caldesmon, smooth muscle myosin heavy chains, and calponin. This study confirms the similarity between stromal cells and smooth muscle cells. Moreover, our results reveal that cells in vivo with the phenotype closest to that of stromal cells are immature fetal smooth muscle cells and subendothelial intimal smooth muscle cells; a cell subset with limited development following birth but extensively recruited in atherosclerotic lesions. Stromal cells very probably derive from mesenchymal cells that differentiate along this distinctive vascular smooth muscle cell pathway. In humans, this differentiation seems crucial for the maintenance of granulomonopoiesis. These in vitro studies were completed by examination of trephine bone marrow biopsies from adults without hematologic abnormalities. These studies revealed the presence of alpha-SM-positive cells at diverse locations: vascular smooth muscle cells in the media of arteries and arterioles, pericytes lining capillaries, myoid cells lining sinuses at the abluminal side of endothelial cells or found within the hematopoietic logettes, and endosteal cells lining bone trabeculae. More or less mature cells of the granulocytic series were in intimate contact with the thin cytoplasmic extensions of myoid cells. Myoid cells may be the in vivo counterpart of stromal cells with the above-described vascular smooth muscle phenotype.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nahed El-Najjar ◽  
Rashmi P. Kulkarni ◽  
Nancy Nader ◽  
Rawad Hodeify ◽  
Khaled Machaca

Diabetes is a complex disease that is characterized with hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance. These pathologies are associated with significant cardiovascular implications that affect both the macro- and microvasculature. It is therefore important to understand the effects of various pathologies associated with diabetes on the vasculature. Here we directly test the effects of hyperglycemia on vascular smooth muscle (VSM) Ca2+signaling in an isolated in vitro system using the A7r5 rat aortic cell line as a model. We find that prolonged exposure of A7r5 cells to hyperglycemia (weeks) is associated with changes to Ca2+signaling, including most prominently an inhibition of the passive ER Ca2+leak and the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA). To translate these findings to the in vivo condition, we used primary VSM cells from normal and diabetic subjects and find that only the inhibition of the ER Ca2+leaks replicates in cells from diabetic donors. These results show that prolonged hyperglycemia in isolation alters the Ca2+signaling machinery in VSM cells. However, these alterations are not readily translatable to the whole organism situation where alterations to the Ca2+signaling machinery are different.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (14) ◽  
pp. 1894-1900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Hall ◽  
Patrick Chan ◽  
Kevin Sheets ◽  
Matthew Apperson ◽  
Christopher Delaughter ◽  
...  

A number of innovative methods exist to measure cell–matrix adhesive forces, but they have yet to accurately describe and quantify the intricate interplay of a cell and its fibrous extracellular matrix (ECM). In cardiovascular pathologies, such as aortic aneurysm, new knowledge on the involvement of cell–matrix forces could lead to elucidation of disease mechanisms. To better understand this dynamics, we measured primary human aortic single smooth muscle cell (SMC) forces using nanonet force microscopy in both inside-out (I-O intrinsic contractility) and outside-in (O-I external perturbation) modes. For SMC populations, we measured the I-O and O-I forces to be 12.9 ± 1.0 and 57.9 ± 2.5 nN, respectively. Exposure of cells to oxidative stress conditions caused a force decrease of 57 and 48% in I-O and O-I modes, respectively, and an increase in migration rate by 2.5-fold. Finally, in O-I mode, we cyclically perturbed cells at constant strain of varying duration to simulate in vivo conditions of the cardiac cycle and found that I-O forces decrease with increasing duration and O-I forces decreased by half at shorter cycle times. Thus our findings highlight the need to study forces exerted and felt by cells simultaneously to comprehensively understand force modulation in cardiovascular disease.


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