Pericytes play an important role in modulating angiogenesis, but the origin of these cells is poorly understood. To evaluate whether the mature vessel wall contains pericyte progenitor cells, nonendothelial mesenchymal cells isolated from the rat aorta were cultured in a serum-free medium optimized for stem cells. This method led to the isolation of anchorage-independent cells that proliferated...

Abnormal vascular responsiveness in diabetes has been attributed to a number of changes in contractile pathways, affected in part by the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). It has been reported that NADPH oxidase (NOX) is increased in diabetic (streptozotocin treated; STZ) rat arteries; however the pharmacological agents used to inhibit NOX activity are known to be unsuitable for i...

We have tested the hypothesis that growth factor signaling pathways are augmented in hypertension, a disease associated with vascular smooth muscle cell growth. Thoracic aorta was dissected from deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt (DOCA-salt) and one kidney, one clip (1K, 1C) hypertensive rats and from sham normotensive rats for use in isolated tissue bath experiments. Systolic blood pressure was ...

We analyzed whether the cyclic AMP induced down-regulation of the nitric oxide (NO) receptor soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) is mediated by the mRNA-protecting protein HuR. Exposure (up to 24 h) of isolated rat aortic segments to the activator of adenylyl cyclase, forskolin (10 microM), and to both activators of cAMP-stimulated protein kinase (PKA), 5,6-dichloro-1-beta-D-ribofuranosylbenzimidazo...

A high-affinity receptor site for 3H-P1075 previously observed in rat aorta has been proposed to mediate the vasorelaxation effects of P1075 and other ATP-sensitive K+ channel (KATP) openers. We tested this hypothesis by correlating the receptor binding of 3H-P1075 with its vasorelaxation effects in several isolated vascular preparations from three species: rat, rabbit and dog. In rat aorta and...

Measurement of oxygen uptake by thoracic and abdominal segments of rat aorta showed significantly lower rates in the abdominal than in the thoracic aorta of adult animals. The evidence suggests that as a rat ages the respiratory rate of abdominal aorta falls more sharply than that of the thoracic segment. This result may provide an explanation for the relatively high incidence of atherosclerosi...