title: Distinct regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinases and p27Kip1 in smooth muscle cells from different vascular beds. A potential role in establishing regional phenotypic variance.
abstract: Excessive proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) participate in atherosclerotic plaque growth. In this study, we investigated whether SMCs from vessels with different atherogenicity exhibit distinct growth and migratory potential and investigated the underlying mechanisms. In fat-fed rabbits, we found increased cell proliferation and atheroma formation in the aortic arch versus the femoral artery. When examined in culture, SMCs isolated from the aortic arch (ASMCs) displayed a greater capacity for inducible proliferation and migration than paired cultures of femoral artery SMCs. Two lines of evidence suggested that distinct regulation of the growth suppressor p27(Kip1) (p27) contributes to establishing these phenotypic dissimilarities. First, p27 expression was comparably lower in ASMCs, which exhibited a higher fraction of p27 phosphorylated on Thr-187 and ubiquitinated. Second, forced p27 overexpression in ASMCs impaired their proliferative and migratory potential. We found that platelet-derived growth factor-BB-dependent induction of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway was comparably higher in ASMCs. Importantly, pharmacological inhibition of MAPKs increased p27 expression and attenuated ASMC proliferation and migration. In contrast, forced MAPK activation diminished p27 expression and markedly augmented femoral artery SMC proliferation and migration. We propose that intrinsic differences in the regulation of MAPKs and p27 play an important role in creating variance in the proliferative and migratory capacity of vascular SMCs, which might in turn contribute to establishing regional variability in atherogenicity.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Vascular Biology, Department of Molecular and Cellular Pathology and Therapy, Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia, Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), 46010-Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Díez-Juan
authors.forename: María José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cortés
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Andrés
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D050760:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System; D008297:Male; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology*; D009928:Organ Specificity; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins; D050760:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases