Novel functional mechanism of MRUC in pulmonary atrial hypertension.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24591119
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Circulatory organs internal medicine
• Research Institution: Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
• Principal Investigator: OGATA Takehiro 京都府立医科大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (10402877)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 肺高血圧症 / カベオラ / 平滑筋細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Emerging evidence suggests that the Rho/ROCK pathway is associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). MURC/cavin-4, is a muscle-restricted caveolar-related protein. In this study, we found that in a chronic normobaric hypoxia model, MURC-knockout (MURC-/-) mice exhibited attenuated PAH and vascular remodeling compared with wild-type mice. Rat aortic smooth muscle cells had reduced RhoA activity, proliferation, and migration. Caveolin-1 (Cav1) which is a caveolar-related protein suppresses Rho/ROCK pathway through Gα13 inactivation. MURC bound to Cav1 and inhibited the association between Cav1 and the active form of Gα13, resulting in facilitated Rho activation. These results suggest that the association of MURC with Cav1 promotes Gα13-mediated Rho/ROCK activation, which causes vascular remodeling and subsequent PAH.

Free Research Field

循環器病学