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Jafarkhani S, Khakbiz M, Amoabediny G, Mohammadi J, Tahmasebipour M, Rabbani H, Salimi A, Lee KB. A novel co-culture assay to evaluate the effects of sympathetic innervation on vascular smooth muscle differentiation. Bioorg Chem 2023; 133:106233. [PMID: 36731293 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2022.106233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2022] [Revised: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Dedifferentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from a functional phenotype to an inverse synthetic phenotype is a symptom of cardiovascular disorders, such as atherosclerosis and hypertension. The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is an essential regulator of the differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). In addition, numerous studies suggest that SNS also stimulates VSMCs to retain their contractile phenotype. However, the molecular mechanisms for this stimulation have not been thoroughly studied. In this study, we used a novel in vitro co-culture method to evaluate the effective cellular interactions and stimulatory effects of sympathetic neurons on the differentiation of VSMCs. We co-cultured rat neural-like pheochromocytoma cells (PC12) and rat aortic VSMCs with this method. Expression of VSMCs contractile genes, including smooth muscle actin (acta2), myosin heavy chain (myh11), elastin (eln), and smoothelin (smtn), were determined by quantitative real-time-PCR analysis as an indicator of VSMCs differentiation. Fold changes for specific contractile genes in VSMCs grown in vitro for seven days in the presence (innervated) and absence (non-innervated) of sympathetic neurons were 3.5 for acta2, 6.5 for myh11, 4.19 for eln, and 4 for smtn (normalized to Tata Binding Protein (TBP)). As a result, these data suggest that sympathetic innervation promotes VSMCs' contractile gene expression and also maintains VSMCs' functional phenotype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saeed Jafarkhani
- Division of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, North Karegar Ave., PO Box 14395-1561, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mehrdad Khakbiz
- Division of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, North Karegar Ave., PO Box 14395-1561, Tehran, Iran; Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
| | - Ghasem Amoabediny
- Research Center for New Technologies in Life Science Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran; Faculty of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran
| | - Javad Mohammadi
- Division of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, North Karegar Ave., PO Box 14395-1561, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad Tahmasebipour
- Department of Interdisciplinary Technology, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, North Karegar Ave., PO Box 14395-1561, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hodjattallah Rabbani
- Monoclonal Antibody Research Center, Avicenna Research Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ali Salimi
- Monoclonal Antibody Research Center, Avicenna Research Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ki-Bum Lee
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
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