Adenovirus-mediated tMfn2 gene inhibited the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells / 中华急诊医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effect of tMfn2 gene on inhibiting the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and related mechanism. Method VSMCs were transfected with adenovirus vector encoding tMfn2 or Mfn2 (Adv-tMfn2, Adv-Mfn2). The abundance of tMfn2 protein and Mfn2 protein were deter-mined by Western blot analysis using Mfn2 N-term antibody. The effect of tMfn2 on the proliferation of VSMCs was explored by cell counting and MTT assay. The cell cycle was analyzed using flow cytometry. Western blot were used to detect the expression of p-ERK1/2 and p-Raf-1. Results The results of cell counting and MTT both indi-cated that tMfn2 gene displayed more remarkable effect on inhibiting the proliferation of VSMCs than Mfn2 (P <0.01). Flow cytometry showed that most of the cells infected with Adv-tMfn2 or Adv-Mfn2 were blocked in the stage of G0/G1 and few entered into the S phase. Western blot indicated that overexpression of tMfn2 gene resulted in downregulation of phosphorylated ERK1/2 and Raf-1 protein (P < 0.01). These results demonstrated tMfn2 had stronger effect than Mfn2 (P < 0.01). Conclusions tMfn2 gene is superior to Mfn2 gene in attenuating the proliferation of VSMCs via the Ras-Raf-ERK1/2 signaling pathway.