Guillaume Cardouat, Matthieu Douard, Clément Bouchet, Lukas Roubenne, Zuzana Kmecová, Pauline Esteves, Fabien Brette, Christophe Guignabert, Ly Tu, Marilyne Campagnac, Paul Robillard, Florence Coste, Frédéric Delcambre, Matthieu Thumerel, Hugues Begueret, Arnaud Maurac, Yaniss Belaroussi, Jan Klimas, Thomas Ducret, Jean-François Quignard, Pierre Vacher, Isabelle Baudrimont, Roger Marthan, Patrick Berger, Christelle Guibert, Véronique Freund-Michel
AIMS: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterised by an increase in pulmonary arterial pressure, ultimately leading to right ventricular failure and death. We have previously shown that nerve growth factor (NGF) plays a critical role in PH. Our objectives here were to determine whether NGF controls Connexin-43 (Cx43) expression and function in the pulmonary arterial smooth muscle, and whether this mechanism contributes to NGF-induced pulmonary artery hyperreactivity. METHODS AND RESULTS: NGF activates its TrkA receptor to increase Cx43 expression, phosphorylation, and localization at the plasma membrane in human pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells, thus leading to enhanced activity of Cx43-dependent GAP junctions as shown by Lucifer Yellow dye assay transfer and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching -FRAP- experiments...
April 9, 2024: Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy