EGF induces nestin expression in vascular smooth muscle cells
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Chou, Yao-Wen
Abstract
During the progression of atherosclerosis, vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are observed in the arterial neo-intima where they proliferate. The neo-intimal smooth muscle cells are different from the mature VSMCs in that they lack of the contraction abilities, but display the characteristics of proliferation, migration, as well as the ability to secrete a large amount of extra-cellular matrix. The formation of this special phenotype of VSMCs in the neo-intima layer is a key event during the atherosclerosis.estin is a intermediate filament (IF) protein specifically expressed in myogenic and neural stem cells. In this study, we showed that nestin is expressed in primary cultures of rat aortic VSMCs that represent the synthetic phenotype and its expression diminished in those cells upon differentiation to the contractile phenotype after serum deprivation.These results suggested that nestin is a marker of synthetic VSMCs. To identify the extracellular factors that regulate nestin expression, immunofluorescence microscopy was used. Results showed that epidermal growth factor (EGF) induced nestin expression in serum-deprived primary cultures of VSMCs. Furthermore, signaling analyses revealed that the EGF-induced nestin re-expression is mediated through the activation of the Ras-Raf-ERK signaling axis. This is the first report showing that nestin expression is regulated by the extracellular growth factors in VSMCs.
Subjects
VSMCs
phenotype
nestin
EGF
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