Volume 9 Issue 2, June 1999: 155-162
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Suppression of angiotensin II stimulated responses in aortic vascular smooth muscle cells of experimental cirrhotic rats
ZHANG Ru1, 2, Guo Liang WANG2,*, Pi Li ZHANG2, Ying XIONG1, Wen Bo ZHANG1, Xing Peng WANG2, De Ling YIN1, Qing JING1*
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
Correspondence:
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.
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