Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0020538 (hypertension)
 170,190 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Antihypertensive therapy not only normalizes the elevated blood pressure but also restores the reduced baroreceptor reflex response associated with hypertension, although the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. We assessed the hypothesis that a reversal of the enhanced basal Fos expression seen during hypertension in nucleus tractus solitarii, the terminal site of baroreceptor afferents, underlies the restoration of baroreceptor reflex sensitivity after antihypertensive treatment. Male adult spontaneously hypertensive or normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats received for 3 weeks captopril (100 mg/kg/day) added to their drinking water. Evaluated subsequently under pentobarbital anesthesia, captopril-treated spontaneously hypertensive rats exhibited significantly lowered systolic blood pressure and restoration of the sensitivity in baroreceptor reflex control of heart rate to levels comparable with Wistar-Kyoto rats. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis and immunohistochemical evaluation revealed concomitant down-regulation of basal expression in nucleus tractus solitarii of c-fos gene at both mRNA and protein levels. Captopril treatment, on the other hand, elicited no discernible effect on systolic blood pressure, cardiac baroreceptor reflex sensitivity or basal expression of Fos protein at the nucleus tractus solitarii of normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats. From these findings we suggest that a down-regulation of basal Fos expression in nucleus tractus solitarii may contribute to the restoration of baroreceptor reflex sensitivity in spontaneously hypertensive rats that received antihypertensive treatment such as captopril.
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PMID:Down-regulation of basal Fos expression at nucleus tractus solitarii underlies restoration of baroreflex response after antihypertensive treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats. 1204 76

During the development of hypertension, hypertrophy of smooth muscle cells and deposition of extracellular matrix thicken the walls of large arteries without reducing the size of the lumen. The small arteries and arterioles remodel inwardly through a eutrophic process of rearrangement of the same smooth muscle cells around a smaller lumen. Pressure, through an increase in circumferential wall stress, can account for both hypertrophy and inward, eutrophic remodeling. The small arteries constrict during an elevation of pressure, thus restoring wall stress toward control levels. The large arteries have little vasoactivity and respond to the increase in wall stress by initiating a growth process. Mechanotransduction of the pressure stimulus to a growth response is being studied in small mesenteric arteries. Raising the pressure from 90 to 140 mmHg initiates a signaling process starting with phosphorylation of Src within 1 minute. This is followed by phosphorylation of Erk 1/2 peaking at 5 minutes and expression of c-fos mRNA within 30 minutes. Gene expression correlates with wall stress and is thus inhibited by a myogenic response. Maintained vasoconstriction in an isolated arteriole results in inward, eutrophic remodeling within 4 days. Thus, the current data support the hypothesis that wall thickness is determined by circumferential wall stress, and lumen size is determined by vascular tone.
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PMID:Adaptation of resistance arteries to increases in pressure. 1215 5

Our laboratory demonstrated previously that spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) exhibited an elevated basal Fos expression in the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS), the terminal site for primary baroreceptor afferents, and that Fos protein is required for the re-expression of angiotensin subtype 1 receptor (AT1R) mRNA in the NTS after baroreceptor activation. The present study evaluated the hypothesis that this re-expression of AT1R is augmented in SHR and is promoted by the heightened Fos expression. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that baroreceptor activation via sustained increase in systemic arterial pressure resulted in a discernible reduction in the expression of AT1R mRNA at the dorsomedial medulla of SHR and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats. However, SHR manifested an appreciably larger magnitude of decline, followed by a faster time course of re-expression in AT1R mRNA. Parallel findings were obtained from the pressor response induced by microinjection unilaterally of angiotensin II (40 pmol) into the NTS. Whereas the re-expression of AT1R at both transcriptional and functional expression levels after baroreceptor activation was discernibly blunted by prior bilateral application into the NTS of an antisense c-fos oligonucleotide (50 pmol), the suppression in SHR was again significantly more intense. Control pretreatment with the corresponding sense or scrambled c-fos oligonucleotide was ineffective. We conclude that the heightened Fos expression in SHR is causatively related to the augmented re-expression of AT1R in the NTS at both transcriptional and functional levels.
Hypertension 2002 Sep
PMID:Augmented upregulation by c-fos of angiotensin subtype 1 receptor in nucleus tractus solitarii of spontaneously hypertensive rats. 1221 76

Ras-related GTPase (Ral) is converted to the GTP-bound form by Ral GDP dissociation stimulator (Ral-GDS), a putative effector protein of Ras. Although a number of studies indicate that Ras induces cardiac hypertrophy, the functional role of Ral-GDS/Ral signaling pathway is as yet unknown in cardiac myocytes. We investigated the role of the Ral-GDS/Ral pathway in cardiac hypertrophy. Transfection of Ral-GDS and constitutively active mutant of Ral (RalG23V) in cultured rat neonatal myocytes stimulated promoter activity of c-fos (5.4-fold and 2.6-fold, P<0.01), alpha-skeletal actin (2.7-fold and 2.1-fold, P<0.01), and beta-myosin heavy chain-luciferase (2.8-fold and 2.3-fold, P<0.01). Ral-GDS-induced or RalG23V-induced promoter activation was increased synergistically with activated Ras (RasG12V). Dominant-negative mutant of Ral (RalS28N) partially inhibited RasG12V induced promoter activation. Cardiac myocytes transfected with RalG23V showed increased cell size compared with nontransfected or vector-transfected cells (2.1-fold, P<0.01). Cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1) upregulated Ral-GDS mRNA expression and induced Ral activation. CT-1-induced Ral-GDS mRNA expression was inhibited by overexpression of the dominant-negative mutant of STAT3. Moreover, Ral activity was elevated in hypertrophied hearts (2.1-fold, P<0.01) by mechanical stress in association with increased CT-1 expression and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) phosphorylation in the rat aortic banding model. Ral-GDS/Ral pathway is involved in a wide range of gene expressions and is activated by hypertrophic stimuli in vitro and in vivo. SATA3 may play a key role in Ral-GDS expression and Ral activation. Our data provide evidence that the Ral-GDS/Ral signaling pathway is a link to the process of cardiac hypertrophy.
Hypertension 2003 Apr
PMID:Ral GDP dissociation stimulator and Ral GTPase are involved in myocardial hypertrophy. 1264 11

The arterial wall is composed of dynamically interacting cellular and acellular components that are necessary for the maintenance of vessel homeostasis. Two extracellular proteins in the vessel wall, elastin and laminin, play important structural roles. We recently established a role for the elastin-laminin receptor (ELR) in mechanotransduction of stretch in cultured vascular smooth muscle (VSM) (Am. J. Physiol.: Heart Circ. Physiol. 280(3) (2001) H1354). We found stretch-mediated signaling by the ELR decreased the expression of the proto-oncogene, c-fos, and subsequent cellular proliferation. However, the role for the ELR in mediating pressure-induced changes in gene expression in intact, isolated resistance vessels is unknown and the goal of this study was to ascertain this possibility. In this study, isolated rat cerebral (approximately 180 microm) and mesenteric (approximately 280 microm) arteries were pressurized to 65 mmHg (baseline) and this pressure was held for 2 h. After this equilibration, pressures were increased to either 80 mmHg (n=6) or 140 mmHg (n=6) for 30 min and transcript levels of c-fos and the housekeeping gene, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) mRNA were assessed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Elevation of pressure in the cerebral arteries decreased the c-fos/GAPDH ratio by 72% in the 140 mmHg group compared to the 80 mmHg control. Importantly, the decrease in c-fos expression was blocked by ELR peptide antagonists (VGVAPG or YIGSR, 10 microM, n=6). In contrast, the decrease in c-fos expression was not observed in the mesenteric resistance arteries. In these vessels, pressure (140 mmHg) increased the c-fos/GAPDH ratio (+68% compared to normotensive control, n=6). To account for the difference between the cerebral and mesenteric vessels, histological analysis of elastin fiber content was performed. Cerebral arteries have greater amounts of loose elastin fibers (fibers outside of the organized elastin laminae) in the tunica media compared to mesenteric arteries. This may explain the opposite stretch-induced responses of c-fos expression in these vessels. Stretch-induced ELR signaling may play a prominent role in vascular adaptations to hypertension in specific organ systems. Our data further suggest that ELR activation may represent a larger component of mechanosensitive signaling in the cerebral circulation than in the mesenteric circulation.
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PMID:Mechanotransduction via the elastin-laminin receptor (ELR) in resistance arteries. 1269 94

Both integrin-based focal adhesion complexes and receptor tyrosine kinases have been proposed as scaffolds on which the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-induced signaling complex might assemble. We have recently reported that Ca2+-sensitive tyrosine kinase, Pyk2, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) act as independently regulated scaffolds in cardiomyocytes. In this report, we investigated the activation and regulation of p130Cas, Crk, Pyk2, and c-Src by a well-known hypertrophic agonist, endothelin-1 (ET), and determined their contributions to the activation of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in cardiomyocytes. Like Pyk2, ET-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of p130Cas was significantly inhibited by either chelating intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) or a protein kinase C inhibitor, calphostin C. This activation of p130Cas was also abrogated by the tetrapeptide RGDS, which disrupts integrin heterodimerization; cytochalasin D, which depolymerizes the actin cytoskeleton; or a selective Src family kinase inhibitor, PP2, but not by an EGFR inhibitor, AG1478. We also observed ET-induced temporal associations of Pyk2 with active c-Src, followed by p130Cas with Pyk2, c-Src, and Crk. Overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant of p130Cas (CasDeltaSD), Crk (CrkSH2m), Pyk2 (PKM), or C-terminal Src kinase (Csk), but not of a deletion mutant of EGFR (533delEGFR), attenuated ET-induced JNK activation. Similarly, an ET-induced increase in c-jun promoter luciferase activity was inhibited by overexpression of CasDeltaSD, CrkSH2m, PKM, or Csk. In contrast, ET-induced ERK activation and c-fos gene expression were predominantly regulated by EGFR. Collectively, the focal adhesion-dependent p130Cas/Crk/Pyk2/c-Src-mediated pathway is selectively involved in ET-induced JNK activation in cardiomyocytes.
Hypertension 2003 Jun
PMID:Selective involvement of p130Cas/Crk/Pyk2/c-Src in endothelin-1-induced JNK activation. 1271 47

Although the cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) plays an important role in the survival of neuronal cells and T lymphocytes, the role of CREB in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is incompletely characterized. We examined the role of CREB in VSMCs stimulated with reactive oxygen species. Activation of CREB was examined by Western blot analysis with an antibody that specifically recognizes phosphorylation at serine 133 of CREB, which is a critical marker of activation. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) time-dependently induced phosphorylation of CREB, with a peak at 15 minutes. The H2O2-induced phosphorylation of CREB was partially blocked by inhibition of either extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase kinase by PD98059 or of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) by SB203580. AG1478, an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, suppressed the H2O2-induced phosphorylation of CREB and tyrosine phosphorylation of EGFR. Overexpression of the dominant-negative form of CREB by an adenovirus vector suppressed H2O2-induced c-fos expression. These findings suggest that H2O2 induces CREB phosphorylation through EGFR transactivation and mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. CREB might be a novel redox-sensitive transcription factor involved in the regulation of VSMC gene expression.
Hypertension 2003 Aug
PMID:Cyclic AMP response element-binding protein mediates reactive oxygen species-induced c-fos expression. 1281 Jul 57

Proto-oncogene (c-fos, c-jun) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) expression, as well as DNA synthesis, in aortic and cerebral vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) were upregulated by a decrease in extracellular magnesium ions ([Mg2+]o). Upregulation of these transcriptional factors was inversely proportional to the [Mg2+]o and occurred over the pathophysiologic range of serum Mg2+ found in patients presenting with hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and stroke. Removal of extracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]o), use of nifedipine or protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors prevented the upregulation of the proto-oncogenes and DNA synthesis in VSMCs. These data show that [Mg2+]o may be an important, heretofore, overlooked natural modulator of proto-oncogene and NF-kappaB expression in VSMCs and that Ca2+ and PKC may play critical roles in induction of c-fos and c-jun in VSMCs induced by a decrease in [Mg2+]o. These results point to a role for low serum Mg2+ in potential development of hypertension, atherogenesis, vascular disease, and stroke.
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PMID:Expression of the nuclear factor-kappaB and proto-oncogenes c-fos and c-jun are induced by low extracellular Mg2+ in aortic and cerebral vascular smooth muscle cells: possible links to hypertension, atherogenesis, and stroke. 1294 25

1. This paper reviews studies carried out in our laboratory in which we have used the c-fos functional mapping method, in combination with other methods, to determine the functional organization of central baroreceptor pathways as they operate in the conscious rabbit. 2. First, we showed that periods of induced hypertension or hypotension each result in a specific and reproducible pattern of activation of neurons in the brainstem and forebrain. In particular, hypotension (but not hypertension) results in the activation of catecholamine neurons in the medulla and pons and vasopressin-synthesizing neurons in the hypothalamus. 3. The activation of medullary cell groups in response to induced hypertension or hypotension in the conscious rabbit is almost entirely dependent on inputs from arterial baroreceptors, while the activation of hypothalamic vasopressin-synthesising neurons in response to hypotension is largely dependent on baroreceptors, although an increase in circulating angiotensin also appears to contribute. 4. Discrete groups of neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) and A5 area in the pons are the major groups of spinally projecting neurons activated by baroreceptor unloading. In contrast, spinally projecting neurons in the paraventricular nucleus in the hypothalamus appear to be largely unaffected by baroreceptor signals. 5. Direct afferent inputs to RVLM neurons in response to increases or decreases in arterial pressure originate primarily from other medullary nuclei, particularly neurons located in the caudal and intermediate levels of the ventrolateral medulla (CVLM and IVLM), as well as in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS). 6. There is also a direct projection from barosensory neurons in the NTS to the CVLM/IVLM region, which is activated by baroreceptor inputs. 7. Collectively, the results of our studies in conscious animals indicate that baroreceptor signals reach all levels of the brain. With regard to the baroreceptor reflex control of sympathetic activity, our studies are consistent with previous studies in anesthetized animals, but in addition reveal other previously unrecognized pathways that also contribute to this reflex regulation.
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PMID:Functional organization of brain pathways subserving the baroreceptor reflex: studies in conscious animals using immediate early gene expression. 1451 18

We tested the hypothesis that neonatal maternal separation (NMS), a form of stress that affects hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) function in adult rats, alters development of the respiratory control system. Pups subjected to NMS were placed in a temperature and humidity controlled incubator 3 h per day for 10 consecutive days (P3 to P12). Control pups were undisturbed. Once they reached adulthood (8-10 weeks old), rats were placed in a plethysmography chamber for measurement of ventilatory and cardiovascular parameters under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Measurement of c-fos mRNA expression in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH) combined with plasma ACTH and corticosterone levels confirmed that NMS effectively disrupted HPA axis function in males. In males, baseline minute ventilation was not affected by NMS. In contrast, NMS females show a greater resting minute ventilation due to a larger tidal volume. The hypoxic ventilatory response of male NMS rats was 25% greater than controls, owing mainly to an increase in tidal volume response. This augmentation of the hypoxic ventilatory response was sex-specific also because NMS females show an attenuated minute ventilation increase. Baseline mean arterial blood pressure of male NMS rats was 20% higher than controls. NMS-related hypertension was not significant in females. The mechanisms underlying sex-specific disruption of cardio-respiratory control in NMS rats are unknown but may be a consequence of the neuroendocrine disruption associated with NMS. These data indicate that exposure to a non-respiratory stress during early life elicits significant plasticity of these homeostatic functions which persists until adulthood.
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PMID:Neonatal maternal separation and sex-specific plasticity of the hypoxic ventilatory response in awake rat. 1463 99


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