The microtubule-organizing complex and the Golgi apparatus are co-localized around the entire nuclear envelope of interphase cardiac myocytes

1987 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-34
Author(s):  
P.J. Kronebusch ◽  
S.J. Singer

In most animal cells, the microtubule-organizing centre (MTOC) and the Golgi apparatus (GA) are co-localized on one side of the nucleus, an arrangement that allows these cells to acquire a functional polarity. An exception has been reported in the skeletal muscle myotube, where the MTOC and GA exhibit a circumnuclear distribution. We wished to determine if this unusual distribution of the MTOC and GA was peculiar to syncytial myotubes or reflected a pattern found in muscle cells generally. Immunofluorescence microscopic studies of cultured chicken skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle and gizzard smooth muscle cells were carried out using preimmune sera that recognized the pericentriolar material, anti-tubulin antibodies to label the MTOC, and fluorescent wheat-germ agglutinin to label the GA. These studies have shown that cardiac myocytes possess a circumnuclear distribution of their MTOC and GA as do skeletal myotubes, but smooth muscle cells exhibit the centrosomal MTOC and GA distribution found in most other cells. The circumnuclear MTOC/GA distribution therefore is associated with striated muscle cells. We also found that as embryonic cardiac myocytes pass through the cell cycle the microtubule-organizing activity in these cells switches from a circumnuclear distribution in interphase to the conventional centrosomal location during mitosis. Thus, cardiac myocytes provide a rare example of mononucleated animal cells that do not display a centrosomal MTOC or a polarized GA, and also reveal a system in which the MTOC structure can be reversibly altered in a cell cycle-dependent manner.

2013 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyo Jung Kim ◽  
Byung-Yoon Cha ◽  
In Sil Park ◽  
Ji Sun Lim ◽  
Je-Tae Woo ◽  
...  

Liquorice is one of the botanicals used frequently as a traditional medicine in the West and in the East. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB is involved in the development of CVD by inducing abnormal proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells. In our preliminary study, dehydroglyasperin C (DGC), an active compound of liquorice, showed strong antioxidant activity. Since phytochemicals with antioxidant activities showed beneficial effects on chronic inflammatory diseases, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of DGC on PDGF-induced proliferation and migration of human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMC). Treatment of HASMC with DGC for 24 h significantly decreased PDGF-induced cell number and DNA synthesis in a dose-dependent manner without any cytotoxicity, as demonstrated by the 3-(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide test and thymidine incorporation. Upon cell cycle analysis, DGC blocked the PDGF-induced progression through the G0/G1 to S phase of the cell cycle, and down-regulated the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK); 2, cyclin E, CDK4 and cyclin D1. Furthermore, DGC significantly attenuated PDGF-stimulated phosphorylation of PDGF receptor-β, phospholipase C-γ1, AKT and extracellular-regulated kinase 1/2, and DGC inhibited cell migration and the dissociation of actin filaments by PDGF. In a rat vascular balloon injury model, DGC suppressed an excessive reduction in luminal diameters and neointimal formation compared with the control group. These results demonstrate the mechanistic basis for the prevention of CVD and the potential therapeutic properties of DGC.


1994 ◽  
Vol 301 (2) ◽  
pp. 465-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Volpe ◽  
A Martini ◽  
S Furlan ◽  
J Meldolesi

Expression by smooth-muscle cells of calsequestrin (CS), the low-affinity/high-capacity Ca(2+)-binding protein of striated-muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), has been investigated in recent years with conflicting results. Here we report the purification and characterization from rat vas deferens of two CS isoforms, the first deemed skeletal muscle, the second cardiac type, on account of their N-terminal amino acids and other relevant biochemical and molecular properties. Compared with vas deferens, the smooth muscles from aorta and stomach, in that order, were found to express lower amounts of CS, whereas in the uterus and bladder the protein was not detectable. The ratio between the two CS isoforms was also variable, with the stomach and aorta predominantly expressing the skeletal-muscle type and the vas deferens expressing the two CSs in roughly similar amount. Because of the property of CSs to localize within the skeletal-muscle SR lumen not uniformly, but according to the distribution of their anchorage membrane proteins, the expression of the protein suggests the existence in smooth-muscle cells of discrete endoplasmic-reticulum areas specialized in the rapidly exchanging Ca2+ storage and release, and thus in the control of a variety of functions, including smooth-muscle contraction.


1991 ◽  
Vol 260 (3) ◽  
pp. C581-C588 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bobik ◽  
A. Grooms ◽  
P. J. Little ◽  
E. J. Cragoe ◽  
S. Grinpukel

The reported effects of alterations in Na-H exchange activity on mitogenesis are variable and appear dependent on the cell type examined. We examined the effects of reductions in ethylisopropylamiloride (EIPA)-sensitive pH-regulating mechanisms including Na-H exchange and alterations in intracellular pH (pHi) on the growth characteristics of rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASM) cultured in serum-containing bicarbonate-buffered medium. Exposure of RASM replicating in bicarbonate-containing medium to the Na-H exchange inhibitors EIPA, dimethylamiloride (DMA), or amiloride (A) attenuated their replication rate. The order of potency of the inhibitors (EIPA greater than DMA much greater than A) was similar to their documented effects on Na-H exchange activity and to their order of potency for inhibiting recovery from CO2-induced acidosis in these cells. Reductions in pHi induced by lowering extracellular pH also attenuated the incorporation of [3H]-thymidine into DNA, while increases in pHi were associated with an acceleration in the rate of incorporation of [3H]thymidine into DNA. The effects of the Na-H exchange inhibitors on RASM replication were due to a reduction in the ability of the smooth muscle cells to enter the S phase of the mitotic cell cycle. This appeared predominantly the consequence of effects late within the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Concentrations of EIPA that markedly reduced the ability of RASM to enter S phase and to replicate also attenuated the increase in protein synthesis occurring 6-8 h after exposure to serum.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


1993 ◽  
Vol 264 (4) ◽  
pp. C783-C788 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Malam-Souley ◽  
M. Campan ◽  
A. P. Gadeau ◽  
C. Desgranges

Because exogenous ATP is suspected to influence the proliferative process, its effects on the cell cycle progression of arterial smooth muscle cells were studied by investigating changes in the mRNA steady-state level of cell cycle-dependent genes. Stimulation of cultured quiescent smooth muscle cells by exogenous ATP induced chronological activation not only of immediate-early but also of delayed-early cell cycle-dependent genes, which were usually expressed after a mitogenic stimulation. In contrast, ATP did not increase late G1 gene mRNA level, demonstrating that this nucleotide induces a limited cell cycle progression of arterial smooth muscle cells through the G1 phase but is not able by itself to induce crossing over the G1-S boundary and consequently DNA synthesis. An increase in c-fos mRNA level was also induced by ADP but not by AMP or adenosine. Moreover, 2-methylthioadenosine 5'-triphosphate but not alpha, beta-methyleneadenosine 5'-triphosphate mediated this kind of response. Taken together, these results demonstrate that extracellular ATP induces the limited progression of arterial smooth muscle cells through the G1 phase via its fixation on P2 gamma receptors.


1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3722-3733
Author(s):  
D H Gorski ◽  
D F LePage ◽  
C V Patel ◽  
N G Copeland ◽  
N A Jenkins ◽  
...  

Adult vascular smooth muscle cells dedifferentiate and reenter the cell cycle in response to growth factor stimulation. Here we describe the molecular cloning from vascular smooth muscle, the structure, and the chromosomal location of a diverged homeobox gene, Gax, whose expression is largely confined to the cardiovascular tissues of the adult. In quiescent adult rat vascular smooth muscle cells, Gax mRNA levels are down-regulated as much as 15-fold within 2 h when these cells are induced to proliferate with platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) or serum growth factors. This reduction in Gax mRNA is transient, with levels beginning to rise between 8 and 24 h after mitogen stimulation and returning to near normal by 24 to 48 h. The Gax down-regulation is dose dependent and can be correlated with the mitogen's ability to stimulate DNA synthesis. PDGF-AA, a weak mitogen for rat vascular smooth muscle cells, did not affect Gax transcript levels, while PDGF-AB and -BB, potent mitogens for these cells, were nearly as effective as fetal bovine serum. The removal of serum from growing cells induced Gax expression fivefold within 24 h. These data suggest that Gax is likely to have a regulatory function in the G0-to-G1 transition of the cell cycle in vascular smooth muscle cells.


1991 ◽  
Vol 260 (5) ◽  
pp. H1713-H1717 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Ikeda ◽  
M. Ikeda ◽  
T. Oohara ◽  
A. Oguchi ◽  
T. Kamitani ◽  
...  

We have investigated the effect of interleukin 6 (IL-6) on the growth of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) isolated from rat aortas. Murine recombinant IL-6 significantly increased the number of VSMC and stimulated tritiated thymidine incorporation into VSMC in a dose-dependent manner. The IL-6-induced thymidine incorporation into VSMC was totally inhibited by the Ca2+ channel blocker verapamil; however, IL-6 showed no effects on the intracellular Ca2+ level ([Ca2+]i) in VSMC. Antibody against platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) also totally inhibited the IL-6-induced thymidine uptake. PDGF caused a significant increase in the [Ca2+]i, which was totally inhibited by verapamil. IL-6 mRNA was not detected in unstimulated “quiescent” VSMC, but its expression was stimulated by exposure of VSMC to 10% fetal bovine serum. Immunohistochemical study using anti-PDGF antibody showed that IL-6 stimulated PDGF production in VSMC. These results support the premise that IL-6 is released by VSMC in an autocrine manner and promotes the growth of VSMC via induction of endogenous PDGF production.


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