| 1. |
- Rahman, Awahan, et al.
(författare)
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Late onset vascular dysfunction in the R6/1 model of Huntington's disease.
- 2012
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Ingår i: European Journal of Pharmacology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1879-0712 .- 0014-2999.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Huntington's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that also gives raise to widespread changes in peripheral organs and tissues. We tested the hypothesis that vascular dysfunction may occur in Huntington's disease by studying R6/1 mice which express exon 1 of the mutant huntingtin gene. We assessed arterial function in R6/1 and wild type (WT) mice using myography. Arterial contractility was largely unaltered in R6/1 arteries at 15 and 32 weeks of age. By 40 weeks, contractility was impaired irrespective of which vasoconstrictor we tested. Endothelium-dependent relaxation was not affected, and we observed no changes in arterial geometry or expression of contractile proteins, such as myosin regulatory light chains or smooth muscle α-actin. The frequency of calcium oscillations in R6/1 arterial smooth muscle cells was higher than in WT control tissue, whereas myosin phosphorylation was unaltered. Impairment of force by the mitochondrial inhibitors cyanide and rotenone was less pronounced in R6/1 than in WT arteries and mitochondria were enlarged, in keeping with an effect related to altered mitochondrial function. Our results reveal that arteries in the R6/1 model of Huntington's disease exhibit an age-dependent impairment of contractility and that they depend less on mitochondrial function when they contract.
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| 2. |
- Shakirova, Yulia, et al.
(författare)
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Human urinary bladder smooth muscle is dependent on membrane cholesterol for cholinergic activation.
- 2010
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Ingår i: European Journal of Pharmacology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1879-0712 .- 0014-2999. ; 634, s. 142-148
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Voiding is mediated by muscarinic receptors in urinary bladder smooth muscle cells. Lipid rafts and caveolae are cholesterol enriched membrane domains that modulate the activity of G protein-coupled receptors and second messenger systems. Conflicting findings regarding sensitivity of muscarinic signalling to cholesterol desorption, which perturbs lipid rafts and caveolae, have been reported, and no study has used human urinary bladder. Here, the dependence of human bladder muscarinic receptor signalling on plasma membrane cholesterol was examined. Nerve-mediated contraction, elicited by electrical field stimulation of human bladder strips, was impaired by desorption of cholesterol using methyl-beta-cyclodextrin, and the concentration-response curve for the muscarinic agonist carbachol was right-shifted. No effect of cholesterol desorption was observed in rat, and in mouse increased maximum contraction was seen. Expression of caveolin-1, PLC(beta1) and M(3) muscarinic receptors did not differ between species in a manner that would explain the differential sensitivity to cholesterol desorption. In human bladder, threshold depolarisation eliminated the difference between cyclodextrin-treated and control preparations. Contraction elicited by depolarisation per se was not affected. M(3) muscarinic receptors appeared clustered along plasma membrane profiles as shown by immunohistochemical staining of human bladder, but no redistribution in association with cholesterol reduction were seen. Thus, muscarinic receptor-induced contraction of the urinary bladder exhibits species-specific differences in its sensitivity to cholesterol desorption suggesting differential roles of lipid rafts/caveolae in muscarinic receptor signalling between species.
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| 3. |
- Swärd, Karl, et al.
(författare)
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Elevated pulmonary arterial pressure and altered expression of Ddah1 and Arg1 in mice lacking cavin-1/PTRF.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Physiological Reports. - 2051-817X. ; 1:1, s. 00008-00008
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Caveolae are invaginations in the plasma membrane that depend on caveolins and cavins for maturation. Here, we investigated the pulmonary phenotype in mice lacking cavin-1. Bright field and electron-microscopy showed that the cavin-1-deficient mice lacked caveolae in the lung, had an increased lung tissue density, and exhibited hypertrophic remodeling of pulmonary arteries. The right ventricle of the heart moreover had an increased mass and the right ventricular pressure was elevated. A microarray analysis revealed upregulation of Arg1 and downregulation of Ddah1, molecules whose altered expression has previously been associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Taken together, this work demonstrates vascular remodeling and increased pulmonary blood pressure in cavin-1 deficient mice and associates this phenotype with altered expression of Arg1 and Ddah1.
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