Figure 5
From: Systemic vasculopathy with altered vasoreactivity in a transgenic mouse model of scleroderma
Perturbed endothelin receptor expression and function in vascular smooth muscle cells from transgenic animals. (a, b) vSMCs from transgenic mice have reduced expression of ETRA mRNA and protein when compared with wild-type cells. Exogenous administration of TGF-β or ET-1 to cells from both wild-type and transgenic animals further suppressed ETRA expression. Data are representative of three independent experiments examining four littermates for each condition and are expressed as mean ± SEM,*P < 0.05, **P < 0.001. (c) Vasoconstrictor response of aortic rings to ET-1 was attenuated in transgenic mice. Bosentan attenuates the response in both wild-type and transgenic mice. Representative data from dose response curves of WT (n = 6) and TG (n = 6) aortic rings before (-) and after (+) response to 10-8 mol/L ET-1 concentrations, before (-) and after (+) bosentan 2 μmol/L pretreatment. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM; *P < 0.05.