REGULAR ARTICLESS

Cell Research (1999), 9, 155--162

Suppression of angiotensin II stimulated responses in aortic vascular smooth muscle cells of experimental cirrhotic rats

ZHANG Ru^{1, 2}, Guo Liang WANG^2,*, Pi Li ZHANG², Ying XIONG¹, Wen Bo ZHANG¹, Xing Peng WANG², De Ling YIN¹, Qing JING^1*

¹ Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, Shanghai 200031, China
² Department of Gastroenterology, Shanghai First People's Hospital, Shanghai Medical University, 80 Wu Jin Road, Shanghai 200080, China

ABSTRACT

Functional responses to angiotensin II (AT-II) were determined in aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from experimental cirrhotic rats. Our data showed that AT-II-stimulated extracellular acidification rate (ECAR), which was measured by Cytosensor microphysiometry, was significantly reduced in the aortic VSMCs from the cirrhotic rats as compared to those from the control animals. The ability of AT-II to promote formation of inositol phosphates, the second messenger produced by the activation of Gq-coupled receptors, was also considerably suppressed in the cirrhotic VSMCs. Furthermore, the maximal p42/44 MAPK phosphorylation stimulated by AT-II was significantly reduced in the cirrhotic VSMCs in contrast to that in the normal VSMCs. Taken together, our data clearly demonstrated that the functional responses to AT-II was severely suppressed in aortic VSMCs in cirrhosis, indicating the impairment of general Gq-coupled receptor signaling and subsequent biological function in the cirrhotic VSMCs.

Key words: Angiotensin II, aortic vascular smooth muscle cells, cirrhosis, receptor responses.

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