Vasopressin-Induced Increases in Protein Synthesis and Content in Cultured Rat Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells Evidence for Selective Increases in Smooth Muscle Isoactin Expression

Previous studies from this laboratory have demonstrated that angiotensin II (Ang II) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) are potent hypertrophic agents in cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells. The present study identified major proteins that accumulate in Ang H-induced and AVP-induced hypertrophic cells and initiated studies of the mechanisms that contribute to their accumulation. Smooth muscle cell hypertrophy induced by Ang H and/or AVP (1 ,uM each) was associated with widespread increases in the content of many cellular proteins that were resolved by oneand two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. However, increases were also selective in nature, with increases in certain individual proteins, including actin (twofold to threefold), vimentin (2.5-fold to sevenfold), tropomyosin (threefold to sixfold), and myosin heavy chain, far exceeding overall increases in cellular protein content (20-40%o). Increases in actin content were due largely to increased expression of smooth muscle ar-actin (3.6to 7.5-fold), as opposed to nonmuscle f-actin (1.7to 2.5-fold). Increases in smooth muscle a-actin were accompanied by a fivefold to eightfold increase in smooth muscle a-actin mRNA, indicating that these changes were not due exclusively to translational controls. Results demonstrate that contractile agonist-induced hypertrophy in cultured smooth muscle cells is due, in part, to increased expression of smooth muscle contractile proteins. Furthermore, the fact that Ang II and AVP induced selective increases in smooth muscle a-actin suggests that these agonists may not only regulate growth of vascular smooth muscle but may also promote expression of smooth muscle-specific contractile proteins during differentiation of vascular smooth muscle. (Circulation Research 1991;68:288-299)