Role of integrin-linked kinase in vascular smooth muscle cells: Regulation by statins and angiotensin II
- 作者：Erik B. Friedrich ; Yvonne P. Clever ; Sven Wassmann ; Nikos Werner ; Michael Bö ; hm and Georg Nickenig
- 关键词：Integrin-linked kinase ; Vascular smooth muscle cells ; Statins ; Angiotensin II ; Atherosclerosis
- 刊名：Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
- 出版年：2006
- 期刊代码：159_0006291x
- 类别：bio
- 出版时间：27 October 2006
- 卷：349
- 期：3
- 页码：883-889
- 文件大小：287 K
摘要
Our goal was to characterize the role of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), which play a crucial role in atherogenesis. Transfection of VSMC with wild-type and dominant-negative ILK cDNA constructs revealed that ILK mediates migration and proliferation of VSMC but has no effect on VSMC survival. The pro-atherogenic mediator angiotensin II increases ILK protein expression and kinase activity while statin treatment down-regulates ILK in VSMC. Functionally, ILK is necessary for angiotensin II-mediated VSMC migration and proliferation. In VSMC transduced with dominant-negative ILK, statins mediate an additive inhibition of VSMC migration and proliferation, while transfection with wild-type ILK is sufficient to overcome the inhibitory effects of statin treatment on VSMC migration and proliferation. In vivo, ILK is expressed in VSMC of aortic sections from wild-type mice where it is down-regulated following statin treatment and up-regulated following induction of atherosclerosis in apoE−/− mice. These data identify ILK as a novel target in VSMC for anti-atherosclerotic therapy.