Molecular cloning and expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase in chick embryonic ventricular myocytes

LPS-induced vascular endothelial growth factor expression in rat lung pericytes

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent angiogenic and vascular permeability factor. Recent studies have shown that the VEGF levels increase in several cell types, for example, macrophages and smooth muscle cells after LPS stimulation, suggesting that it is important in the initiation and development of sepsis. In particular, LPS-regulated contractility in lung pericytes may play an important role in mediating pulmonary microvascular fluid hemodynamics during sepsis. This study investigated the production of VEGF by rat lung pericytes in response to LPS. LPS was found to enhance VEGF mRNA expression in a concentration-dependent manner peaking 2 h after stimulation in pericytes. Vascular endothelial growth factor protein levels in conditioned medium and in cell lysate also increased on increasing LPS and peaked after 24 to 48 h. LPS also significantly augmented iNOS expression in lung pericytes within 6 h. However, iNOS mRNA induction occurred later than LPS-induced VEGF mRNA increases. Interestingly, attempted inhibition with nuclear factor-kappaB or tyrosine kinase did not suppress LPS-induced augmented VEGF mRNA expression in lung pericytes, although both inhibitors markedly inhibited LPS-induced iNOS mRNA expression. SB203580, a p38 MAP kinase inhibitor, repressed LPS-induced VEGF mRNA expression. Furthermore, LPS stimulated a rapid and sustained phosphorylation of p38 MAP kinase. These results show that pericytes produce VEGF in response to LPS stimulation, and that this may be partly mediated by the p38 MAP kinase pathway. More research should be done to establish the regulation of capillary hemodynamics and identify mechanisms of their regulation.

Physiopathology of the embryonic heart (with special emphasis on hypoxia and reoxygenation)

The adaptative response of the developing heart to adverse intrauterine environment such as reduced O2 delivery can result in alteration of gene expression with short- and long-term consequences including adult cardiovascular diseases. The tolerance of the developing heart of acute or chronic oxygen deprivation, its capacity to recover during reperfusion and the mechanisms involved in reoxygenation injury are still under debate. Indeed, the pattern of response of the immature myocardium to hypoxia-reoxygenation differs from that of the adult. This review deals with the structural and metabolic characteristics of the embryonic heart and the functional consequences of hypoxia and reoxygenation. The relative contribution of calcium and sodium overload, pH disturbances and oxidant stress to the hypoxia-induced cardiac dysfunction is examined, as well as various cellular signaling pathways (e.g. MAP kinases) involved in cell survival or death. In the context of the recent advances in developmental cardiology and fetal cardiac surgery, a better understanding of the physiopathology of the stressed developing heart is required.

Evidence for a possible role for nitric oxide in the modulation of heart activity in Achatina fulica and Helix aspersa

The effects of nitric oxide (NO) donors, S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine, S-nitroso-l-glutathione, sodium nitroprusside and sodium nitrite were investigated on the activity of the isolated hearts of Achatina fulica and Helix aspersa. NO donors inhibited heart activity in a concentration-dependent manner. The only exception was sodium nitroprusside, which excited H. aspersa heart. The inhibitory effects of these NO donors were reduced by the NO scavenger, methylene blue, the guanylyl cyclase inhibitor, 1H-(1,2,4) Oxadiazolo(4,3-a)quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ), and potentiated by 8-Br-cGMP and the phosphodiesterase inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX). Acetylcholine also inhibited the heart activity, and this inhibition was reduced by methylene blue and ODQ. Positive NADPH-diaphorase staining was located in the outer pericardial layer of the heart of A. fulica. The present results provide evidence that NO may modulate the activity of gastropod hearts, and this modulation may modify the inhibitory action of acetylcholine on heart activity.

Postanoxic functional recovery of the developing heart is slightly altered by endogenous or exogenous nitric oxide

Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) is strongly and transiently expressed in the developing heart but its function is not well documented. This work examined the role, either protective or detrimental, that endogenous and exogenous NO could play in the functioning of the embryonic heart submitted to hypoxia and reoxygenation. Spontaneously beating hearts isolated from 4-day-old chick embryos were either homogenized to determine basal inducible NOS (iNOS) expression and activity or submitted to 30 min anoxia followed by 100 min reoxygenation. The chrono-, dromo- and inotropic responses to anoxia/reoxygenation were determined in the presence of NOS substrate (L-arginine 10 mM), NOS inhibitor L-NIO (1-5 mM), or NO donor (DETA NONOate 10-100 microM). Myocardial iNOS was detectable by immunoblotting and its activity was specifically decreased by 53% in the presence of 5 mM L-NIO. L-Arginine, L-NIO and DETA NONOate at 10 microM had no significant effect on the investigated functional parameters during anoxia/reoxygenation. However, irrespective of anoxia/reoxygenation, DETA NONOate at 100 microM decreased ventricular shortening velocity by about 70%, and reduced atrio-ventricular propagation by 23%. None of the used drugs affected atrial activity and hearts of all experimental groups fully recovered at the end of reoxygenation. These findings indicate that (1) by contrast with adult heart, endogenously released NO plays a minor role in the early response of the embryonic heart to reoxygenation, (2) exogenous NO has to be provided at high concentration to delay postanoxic functional recovery, and (3) sinoatrial pacemaker cells are the less responsive to NO.

Ets-1 is involved in transcriptional regulation of the chick inducible nitric oxide synthase gene in embryonic ventricular myocytes

In order to elucidate roles of Ets family of transcription factors in transcriptional activation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) genes, we analyzed the chick iNOS gene expression in cultured chick embryonic ventricular myocytes (CEVM). Deletional analysis and site-directed mutagenesis demonstrated that both the Ets/PEA3 site (-221 to -216 bp) and the kappaB site (-101 to -93 bp) of the 5'-flanking region of the chick iNOS gene were involved in the maximal activation of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced expression of the reporter (luciferase) gene, although the proximal kappaB site played the more essential role. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay revealed that LPS augmented the nuclear protein bindings to the Ets/PEA3 as well as kappaB motifs. Ets-1, one of the Ets proteins, was suggested to be bound to the Ets/PEA3 oligonucleotide. By Northern blot analysis, LPS was shown to induce iNOS mRNA in CEVM, along with a preceding increase in the levels of c-ets-1 mRNA. Ets-1 may be involved in the iNOS gene transcription in CEVM, presumably through interacting with the NF-kappaB.

Ethanol-induced reduction in myocardial oxygen consumption can be attenuated by inhibiting guanylyl cyclase

We tested the hypothesis that low-dose ethanol-induced reductions in myocardial metabolism were related to increased cyclic guanosine monophosphate (GMP). Anesthetized open chest rabbits were divided into four groups: control (Ringers lactate and vehicle), ETOH (250 mg/kg i.v. ethanol and vehicle), ODQ (Ringers lactate and 1 H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one, ODQ 10(-4) M ), and ETOH-ODQ (ethanol and ODQ). ODQ, a soluble guanylyl cyclase inhibitor, or vehicle was applied topically to the epicardium for 15 min, while either Ringers lactate or ethanol was administered intravenously. Oxygen consumption (VO2 ) in both the subepicardium (EPI) and subendocardium (ENDO) was determined from coronary blood flow (radioactive microspheres) and O2 extraction (microspectrophotometry). Cyclic GMP was determined by radioimmunoassay. ETOH significantly decreased VO2 in the subepicardium (9.2 +/- 1.0-5.6 +/- 0.7 ml O2 /min/100 g) and subendocardium (9.7 +/- 0.8-7.1 +/- 0.8) and increased cyclic GMP in the subepicardium (10.2 +/- 1.7-13.8 +/- 0.8 pmol/g) and subendocardium (11.0 +/- 0.5-13.7 +/- 0.9). With ODQ, there was no significant change in the subepicardial (9.5 +/- 1.3) or subendocardial (9.0 +/- 0.9) VO2. However, ODQ caused a significant increase in both wall thickening (12.9 +/- 0.9-17.2 +/- 1.2%) and maximal rate of change in wall thickness (10.8 +/- 0.9-16.3 +/- 1.9 mm/s) and decreased subepicardium (8.3 +/- 1.3) and subendocardium (7.8 +/- 1.2) cyclic GMP. The ETOH-ODQ group had cyclic GMP (subepicardium 9.0 +/- 1.8, subendocardium 8.6 +/- 2.4) and VO2 (subepicardium 7.9 +/- 0.5, subendocardium 8.4 +/- 0.4) values similar to control. Thus, the ethanol-induced rise in cyclic GMP was associated with a decrease in myocardial O2 consumption. When this rise was blocked with a soluble guanylyl cyclase inhibitor, the reduction in metabolic demand was also eliminated. This demonstrated that the alcohol-induced reduction in myocardial metabolism was related to increased cyclic GMP and suggests a novel mechanism for the effect of ethanol.

Expression of genes encoding vascular endothelial growth factor and its Flk-1 receptor in the chick embryonic heart

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to play an essential role in embryonic vascular development. The heart is one of the main organs that produce VEGF, but it is still unknown how expression of VEGF gene is regulated in embryonic cardiac myocytes. Thus, we cloned cDNAs encoding VEGF and its receptor (a KDR/flk-1 or Quek1 homologue) from cultured 10-day-old chick embryonic ventricular myocytes (CEVM). Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction revealed that the chick VEGF mRNAs consisted of at least four different species corresponding to the isoforms of 190, 166, 146 and 122 amino acids. In the embryonic heart and CEVM, the isoforms of 166 and 122 amino acids were dominant. Northern blot analysis detected an abundance of VEGF mRNA in both the embryonic heart and CEVM, even at the basal state. The levels of VEGF mRNA in CEVM were significantly augmented by forskolin (100 microM), or phorbol 12-myristate, 13-acetate (200 nM) in a time-dependent manner in CEVM. In contrast, the basal levels of VEGF mRNA were attenuated by genistein (100 microM), but not by H89 (100 microM) or bisindolylmaleimide (75 microM). Northern blot analysis also detected the chick flk-1 mRNA in abundance in the embryonic heart, and to a much lesser extent in CEVM. The expression levels of VEGF and flk-1 mRNA species were continuously high in the 6, 8 and 10-day-old chick embryonic hearts. In the 10-day-old embryonic hearts, in situ hybridization confirmed that mRNA encoding VEGF was mainly expressed in ventricular myocytes. In contrast, the flk-1 mRNA was detected in the microvascular endothelial cells, and to a lesser extent in the ventricular myocytes. These data suggest that VEGF is produced in embryonic ventricular myocytes, even at the basal state, and that the levels of VEGF mRNA may be differently regulated by various protein kinases. VEGF produced by the chick embryonic heart may play important roles in embryonic cardiovascular development by acting on surrounding endothelial cells and, possibly, on ventricular myocytes themselves.

Lipopolysaccharide augments expression and secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor in rat ventricular myocytes

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), also known as vascular permeability factor, is highly expressed in the myocardium under various stimuli including hypoxia and ischemia. On the other hand, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) causes systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), which consists of systemic pathophysiological changes related to vascular hyperpermeability. To test the hypothesis that VEGF is one of the important mediators of SIRS, we examined effects of LPS on the VEGF expression and secretion in cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. LPS (10 microg/ml) rapidly (within 1 h) augmented the levels of VEGF mRNA in these cells. Pharmacological inhibition of nucleic factor-kappaB or tyrosine kinases did not affect the LPS-induced augmentation of VEGF mRNA expression, while these treatments markedly suppressed the up-regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression by LPS. The VEGF concentrations in the conditioned media were also significantly increased by the LPS treatment of 6 h. In conclusion, LPS augments VEGF expression and secretion in rat ventricular myocytes, suggesting that VEGF may be involved in pathogenesis of SIRS. LPS may induce VEGF mRNA through the signaling pathways that are distinct from those responsible for the iNOS induction.

Nitric oxide synthase expression, enzyme activity and NO production during angiogenesis in the chick chorioallantoic membrane

In order to elucidate further the role of nitric oxide (NO) as an endogenous antiangiogenic mediator, mRNA expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), enzyme activity and production of NO were determined in the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), an in vivo model of angiogenesis. In this model, maximum angiogenesis is reached between days 9 - 12 of chick embryo development. After that period, vascular density remains constant. Inducible NO synthase (iNOS) mRNA expression, determined by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT - PCR), increased from the 8th day reaching a maximum (70% increase) at days 10 - 11. NO synthase activity, determined as citrulline formation in the presence of calcium, also increased from day 8 reaching a maximum around day 10 (100% increase). Similar results were obtained in the absence of calcium suggesting that the NOS determined was the inducible form. Nitric oxide production, determined as nitrites, increased from day 8 reaching a maximum around day 10 (64% increase) and remaining stable at day 13. Finally, the bacterial lipopolysaccharide LPS (which activates transcriptionally iNOS), inhibited dose dependently angiogenesis in the CAM. These results in connection with previous findings from this laboratory, showing that NO inhibits angiogenesis in the CAM, suggest that increases in iNOS expression, enzyme activity and NO production closely parallel the progression of angiogenesis in the CAM, thus providing an endogenous brake to control this process. British Journal of Pharmacology (2000) 129, 207 - 213