title: Monocyte-expressed urokinase regulates human vascular smooth muscle cell migration in a coculture model.
abstract: Interactions of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) with monocytes recruited to the arterial wall at a site of injury, with resultant modulation of VSMC growth and migration, are central to the development of vascular intimal thickening. Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) expressed by monocytes is a potent chemotactic factor for VSMC and might serve for the acceleration of vascular remodeling. In this report, we demonstrate that coculture of human VSMC with freshly isolated peripheral blood-derived human monocytes results in significant VSMC migration that increases during the coculture period. Accordingly, VSMC adhesion was inhibited with similar kinetics. VSMC proliferation, however, was not affected and remained at the same basal level during the whole period of coculture. The increase of VSMC migration in coculture was equivalent to the uPA-induced migration of monocultured VSMC and was blocked by addition into coculture of soluble uPAR (suPAR). Analysis of uPA and uPAR expression in cocultured cells demonstrated that monocytes are a major source of uPA, whose expression increases in coculture five-fold, whereas VSMC display an increased expression of cell surface-associated uPAR. These findings indicate that upregulated uPA production by monocytes following vascular injury acts most likely as an endogenous activator of VSMC migration contributing to the remodeling of vessel walls.
authors.affiliation: Charité-Franz-Volhard-Clinic and Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kusch
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tkachuk
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lutter
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Haller
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dietz
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lipp
authors.forename: Inna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dumler
mesh_terms: D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002455:Cell Division; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000187:drug effects; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D006801:Humans; D009000:Monocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology*; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D019899:Paracrine Communication; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D055293:Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator; D012995:Solubility; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C524898:PLAUR protein, human; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D055293:Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator