The origins of vascular smooth muscle are far more diverse than previously thought. Lineage mapping studies show that the segmental organization of early vertebrate embryos leaves footprints on the adult vascular system in the form of a mosaic pattern of different smooth muscle types. Moreover, evolutionarily conserved tissue forming pathways produce vascular smooth muscle from a variety of una...

• This brief review of the rapidly developing research on vascular smooth muscle presents the state of the art as I see it from within my own frame of reference. For a more objective, detailed insight into the workings of vascular smooth muscle, several substantial reviews and compendiums may be read (1-7). The mechanical events responsible for the contraction of vascular smooth muscle are asso...

ketotifen is a benzocycloheptathiophene with a range of pharmacological activities. the present study was carried out to evaluate the action of ketotifen on isolated rat bladder contractions induced by kci and acetylcholine, compared with the effects of other drugs. ketotifen (5 µm) reduced the response to acetylcholine on rat isolated bladder without altering the maximum response and shifted t...

To determine whether vascular smooth muscle cells around intestinal arterioles of various sizes undergo comparable changes in spontaneously hypertensive rats, 4- to 6-week-old (n = 10) and 17- to 19-week-old (n = 10) rats from the Wistar-Kyoto and the spontaneously hypertensive strains were used to study the external morphology of vascular smooth muscle cells by scanning electron microscopy and...

Recent observations in our laboratory suggest that angiotensin II (Ang II) is a bifunctional vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) growth modulator capable ofinducing hypertrophy or inhibiting mitogen-stimulated DNA synthesis. Because transforming growth factor-,61 (TGFfIi) has similar bifunctional effects onVSMC growth, we hypothesized that autocrine production of TGFfti may mediate the growth mo...

In 1653, the English physician William Harvey published the first comprehensive study of blood vessels, De Motu Cordis.1 This classic treatise delineated the directions of blood flow, differences between veins and arteries, functions of venous ''valves,' and anatomy of the systemic and pulmonary circulations. By the 19th century, the major layers constituting blood vessels were identified and o...

Caldesmon, a major actinand calmodulin-binding protein, has been identified in diverse bovine tissues, including smooth and striated muscles and various nonmuscle tissues, by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of tissue homogenates and immunoblotting using rabbit anti-chicken gizzard caldesmon. Caldesmon was purified from vascular smooth muscle (bovine aorta) by heat treatment of a t...

Segments of dog carotid artery were held at in-situ length and studied in vitro after excitation of the muscle with norepinephrine and after poisoning of the muscle with potassium cyanide. In-situ length corresponded to a longitudinal strain of .57 ± .02 relative to the unstretched length. The longitudinal elastic modulus was about 4.1 X 10 dyn/cm at in-situ length and zero transmural pressure....

Vasodilating agents were tested on smooth-muscle strips of small arterial blood vessels of dog and rabbit skin and mesentery, and two patterns of reaction were demonstrated. The type 1 vasodilating agents, for example nicotinate, caused relaxation of contracted strips or blocked their contraction. The type 2 vasodilating compounds, histamine, choline esters, and bradykinin, either caused contra...