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Query: UNIPROT:P01178 (oxytocin)
 15,767 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Smooth muscle cells isolated from the myometrium of a pregnant woman at term were infected with a replication-defective adenovirus vector expressing the E6/E7 proteins of human papilloma virus 16. A clonal line, PHM1-41, was selected by resistance to Geneticin and examined for maintenance of smooth muscle phenotype and response to oxytocin. The immortalized cell line retained morphological characteristics of proliferating smooth muscle cells in culture for up to 22 passages and has been used for over 2 years. The cells expressed smooth muscle-specific alpha-actin and retained estrogen receptors. Oxytocin receptors were present, as measured by whole cell binding assay using the oxytocin antagonist 125I-d(CH2)5[Tyr-(Me)2,Thr4,-Orn8,Tyr9-NH2] as ligand and oxytocin as competitor. The data were best described by a one-site binding model, with a Kd of 0.36 nM and a binding site concentration of 37 fmol/microgram DNA. PHM1-41 cells responded to oxytocin with an increase in intracellular free calcium (EC50 15 nM) and an increase in phosphatidylinositol turnover. Oxytocin-stimulated phosphatidylinositol turnover was inhibited by preincubation with the cAMP analog CPT-cAMP. This immortalized myometrial cell line should prove useful for studies relating to human myometrial function.
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PMID:Oxytocin-stimulated responses in a pregnant human immortalized myometrial cell line. 882 50

An examination of cellular processes involved in myometrial function has been greatly assisted by the use of human myometrial cells in primary culture. However, these cells can be used only for several passages before they senesce, and responses to various agents change with time in culture. The use of transformed cells is limited, as they can be polynucleated and can lose or gain chromosomes. We have developed three telomerase-immortalized cell lines from term-pregnant human myometrium to eliminate variability between passage numbers and allow genetic manipulations of myometrial cells to fully characterize signal pathways. These cells have a normal karyotype and were verified to be uterine smooth muscle by immunocytochemical staining for smooth muscle cell-specific alpha-actin and high affinity oxytocin antagonist binding sites. The three cell lines and the cells in primary culture from which they were derived were examined by cDNA microarray analysis. Of >10 000 expressed genes, there were consistent changes in the expression of approximately 1% in the three immortalized cell lines. We were unable to detect any significant differences between primary and immortalized cells in signal pathways such as epidermal growth factor-stimulated epidermal growth factor receptor phosphorylation, insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation, oxytocin and lysophosphatidic acid-stimulated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 phosphorylation, myosin light chain phosphorylation, and interleukin-1 induction of IkappaBalpha degradation. The immortalized cells should be useful for a range of studies, including high throughput analyses of the effects of environmental agents on the human myometrium.
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PMID:Immortalization and characterization of human myometrial cells from term-pregnant patients using a telomerase expression vector. 1524 28

Successful parturition requires the co-ordination of numerous myometrial signalling events to allow for timely and efficient uterine contractions. Late pregnancy and labour onset in humans may be associated with changes in the expression of myometrial proteins implicated in such uterine contractile signal integration. Accordingly, in myometria from non-pregnant women and pregnant women, not in labour or in labour, we examined the content of putative plasmalemmal scaffolding proteins (caveolin-1 and -2) and compared these to the proportions of signal transducing rho-associated kinases (ROKalpha and beta) and contractile filament-associated proteins alpha-actin, myosin regulatory light chain (MLC(20)) and h-caldesmon. There was no effect of pregnancy or labour on the proportion of caveolin, ROK betaor alpha-actin. However, pregnancy was associated with a decrease in ROKalpha and MLC(20) such that ROK alpha: alpha-actin and MLC(20): alpha-actin ratios were reduced compared to myometria of non-pregnant women. In contrast, h-caldesmon was up-regulated in pregnancy resulting in an elevated h-caldesmon: alpha-actin ratio. There were, however, no further significant changes in ROK alpha, MLC(20) or h-caldesmon expression with spontaneous or oxytocin-induced labour. These data suggest that the mechanism(s) integrating myometrial signalling events with the onset of human labour does not involve differential alterations of the cellular expressions of caveolins, ROK, alpha-actin, MLC(20) or h-caldesmon.
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PMID:Expression of scaffolding, signalling and contractile-filament proteins in human myometria: effects of pregnancy and labour. 1578 70