Role of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor/ARNT/Cytochrome P450 System in Pulmonary Vascular Diseases

CYPs (cytochrome p450) are critically involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics and toxins. Given that pulmonary hypertension is strongly associated with environmental exposure, we hypothesize that CYPs play a role in the development and maintenance of pathological vascular remodeling. We sought to identify key CYPs that could link drug or hormone metabolism to the development of pulmonary hypertension. We searched in Medline (PubMed) database, as well as http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, for CYPs associated with many key aspects of pulmonary arterial hypertension including, but not limited to, severe pulmonary hypertension, estrogen metabolism, inflammation mechanisms, quasi-malignant cell growth, drug susceptibility, and metabolism of the pulmonary arterial hypertension-specific drugs. We postulate a hypothesis where the AhR (aryl hydrocarbon receptor) mediates aberrant cell growth via expression of different CYPs associated with estrogen metabolism and inflammation.