Expression of adrenomedullin in portal hypertensive gastric mucosa of rats.
We examined the expression and localization of adrenomedullin (AM) mRNA, AM receptor (AM-R) mRNA and AM protein in normal and portal hypertensive (PHT) rat gastric mucosa. Methods included competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT/PCR), in situ hybridization and Western blot analysis. Both AM mRNA and AM-R mRNA were strongly expressed not only in normal rat gastric mucosa but also PHT rat gastric mucosa. While total AM and AM-R mRNA abundance was similar in both normal and PHT stomachs, in the superficial mucosa-where major defense mechanisms are located-their expression was significantly reduced in PHT rats by 33% (AM mRNA) and 25% (AM-R mRNA) (both p .0.05). AM protein was also expressed similarly in both normal and PHT gastric mucosa. We conclude that AM and its receptor play a role in regulation of gastric mucosal microcirculation and thus gastric mucosal defense.
Department of Medicine, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Long Beach, California, USA.
M
M
Tomikawa
H
H
Wang
M K
MK
Jones
K
K
Sugimachi
I J
IJ
Sarfeh
A S
AS
Tarnawski
D053607:Adrenomedullin; D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism*; D006975:Hypertension, Portal / Q000378:metabolism*; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D010455:Peptides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D053607:Adrenomedullin