Expression pattern of secretory clusterin in pulmonary arterial hypertension rats / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Aim To investigate the expression pattern of secretory clusterin ( sCLU) in lung tissues and plas-ma of rats with pulmonary arterial hypertension ( PAH) induced by monocrotaline ( MCT ) . Methods Thirty male SD rats were randomly divided into control group ( n=6 ) and MCT group ( n=24 ) , and were intraper-itoneally injected 60 mg·kg-1 MCT for MCT group or equal volume normal saline for control group. Real time PCR and Western blot were performed to investi-gate the expression pattern of sCLU mRNA and protein in rat lungs 1 ( n=6 ) , 2 ( n=6 ) , 3 ( n=6 ) and 4 (n=6) weeks after MCT injection, respectively. Im-munohitochemistry was performed to determine the lo-calization of sCLU in rat lungs. Enzyme linked immu-nosorbent assay was performed to detect the concentra-tion of sCLU in rat plasma. Results Expression of sCLU mRNA and protein elevated significantly in time-dependent manners in rat lungs of MCT group, and sCLU mainly localized in the cytoplasma and extracel-lular matrix of cells in pulmonary arterioles. Further-more, sCLU plasma levels were significantly elevated with the progression of PAH and had positive correla-tions with pulmonary hemodynamic indices and right ventricular hypertrophic index. Conclusion sCLU was significantly elevated in MCT induced PAH rat lungs and plasma, and it may participate in the pulmo-nary vascular remodeling process. Moreover, plasma sCLU may be a potential biomarker for PAH.