e0156 Urotensin II promotes monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 expression in aortic adventitial fibroblasts of rat

Background Recent studies reported that vascular adventitial fibroblasts (AFs) are involved in the development of vascular inflammatory diseases, such as atherosclerosis. Urotensin II (UII), a potent vasoconstrictive peptide, could stimulate phenotype differentiation and proliferation of the AFs. The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of UII on the expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in rat aortic AFs, and to study the signal transduction pathways of it. Methods Growth-arrested AFs were incubated in serum-free medium with UII (10−10–10−7 mol/l). In order to explore the mechanism of UII effect, the cells were pretreated with some inhibitors of signal transduction pathways for 30 m, and then incubated with UII (10−8 mol/l) for 3 h to 24 h. The MCP-1 mRNA and protein expression induced by UII were evaluated by the reverse transcriptase PCR and Western Blotting, respectively. The MCP-1 secretion from the cells was determined by ELISA. Results UII could upregulate MCP-1 expression significantly. The MCP-1 mRNA expression increased after 1 h (p