Smooth muscle cells isolated from the neointima after vascular injury exhibit altered responses to platelet-derived growth factor and other stimuli

✍ Scribed by Richard A. Majack; Nicole A. Grieshaber; Colleen L. Cook; Mary C.M. Weiser; Rosemary C. McFall; Scott S. Grieshaber; Michael A. Reidy; Christopher F. Reilly

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 907 KB
• Volume: 167
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9541
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4652(199604)167:1<106::aid-jcp12>3.0.co;2-9

✦ Synopsis

A variety of evidence suggests that vascular smooth rnuscle cells (SMC) exhibit a more immature phenotype when stimulated by injuty to replicate in the adult. One growth characteristic common to immature (embryonic, fetal, and neonatal) SMC is a markedly reduced responsiveness to platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and other mitogenic stimuli. Here we demcnstrate that SMC isolated from the 14-day neointima of experimentally injured carotid arteries exhibit a similar growth phenotype. The proliferative responses of neointimal cells to the BE? homodimer of PDGF, which interacts with both forms of the PDGF receptor, were up to twenty-fold less (as assessed by BrdU irrimunocytochemistry) than that of adult control tunica media cells over a wide range of PDGF concentrations. 0 1996 WILEY-LISS. INC. 91, suggesting possible phenotypic changes in adult SMC during periods o f replication. Finally, vascular SMC o f heterogenous embryological origins may respond in different ways to exogenous mitogens (10). The data, taken together, indicate that considerable heterogeneity, diversity, and plasticity occur among vascular SMC. The transient or stable expression o f distinct SMC phenotypic characteristics may therefore contribute i~n unique ways to developmental and vascular disease processes.