Impact of human urotensin II on the pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells cycle in normoxic/hypoxic rats / 中国应用生理学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>AIM</b>To investigate the impact of human urotensin II (hUII) on pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cell (PASMCs) cycle in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>PASMCs dissected from Wistar rats were cultured in vitro, and incubated with series of concentrations of hUII (10(-7) mol/L, 10(-8) mol/L, 10(-9) mol/L) for 12 hours under normoxia or hypoxia condition, in order to analyze cell cycle progression and sub-G1 of PASMCs by using flow cytometric analysis stain of propidium iodide, which represented the proliferative and apoptotic changes in PASMCs.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The study showed a dose-dependent effect of hUII on PASMCs proliferation, which reflected the increase both in percentage of S phase of cell cycle and proliferative index (PI). The response of PASMCs to hUII was different under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Compared with the control group, the treatment of 10(-7) mol/L, 10(-8) mol/L and 10(-9) mol/L hUII produced an increase of 175%, 136% and 118% under normoxia, respectively, and 135%, 118% and 103% under hypoxia, respectively. The concentration 10(-7) mol/L hUII played a significant role in PASMCs proliferation both under hypoxia and normoxia (P < 0.01). The results of cell cycle did not show sub-G1 of PASMCs at various concentrations of hUII.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>hUII may stimulate DNA synthesis in S phase cell cycle of PASMCs and the proliferation of PASMCs under normoxia and hypoxia conditions, which promote cell growth in a dose-dependent manner.</p>