These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Pulmonary microvascular endothelial cell contractility on silicone rubber substrate.
    Author: Morel NM, Dodge AB, Patton WF, Herman IM, Hechtman HB, Shepro D.
    Journal: J Cell Physiol; 1989 Dec; 141(3):653-9. PubMed ID: 2556412.
    Abstract:
    Endothelial cell (EC) motility may contribute to the regulation of microvascular perfusion and/or paracellular permeability. The experiments reported herein demonstrate that bovine pulmonary microvessel EC can reversibly deform a silicone substrate in response to agents known to contract and relax smooth muscle cells. Contracting pulmonary microvessel EC exerted a tension that created wrinkles in the underlying deformable substrate. Relaxation and loss of tension were revealed by the disappearance of these wrinkles without loss of cell adhesion to the substratum. Angiotensin II (Ang II) and bradykinin stimulated pulmonary microvessel EC to contract within 3 to 8 min in a Ca2+-dependent fashion. The peak of contraction at 10 to 20 min was followed by relaxation. Forskolin and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) initiated relaxation of the microvessel EC within 3 to 10 min respectively. Relaxed EC contracted following the addition of Ang II, also within 3 min. Dibutyryl cAMP, dibutyryl cGMP, and the photoactivated internalized "caged" cAMP and cGMP promoted EC relaxation in a manner similar to forskolin and SNP. Increases in the intracellular concentration of inositol triphosphate (IP3) with the photoactivated IP3 complex promoted EC contraction in 2 min with a peak at 7 min. The contraction was followed by relaxation, which occurred at 20-25 min. Neither bovine pulmonary artery nor retinal microvessel EC, used as controls, contracted under these experimental conditions. One could speculate that this unique contractile property of pulmonary microvessel EC as observed in vitro may play a regulatory role in vivo, in local perfusion and/or in intercellular gap regulation.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]