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Calcium and its role in vascular smooth muscle cell cortical elasticity and adhesion
Author(s) -
Zhu Yi,
Li Min,
Sun Zhe,
Li Zhaohui,
Hong Zhongkui,
Meininger Gerald A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.lb700
Subject(s) - vascular smooth muscle , ionomycin , microbiology and biotechnology , bapta , cell adhesion , chemistry , calcium in biology , cytoskeleton , integrin , actin , actin cytoskeleton , intracellular , biophysics , cell , biology , endocrinology , biochemistry , smooth muscle
Calcium (Ca 2+ ) plays an important role in regulating vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) contractility and cell signaling. The goal of this study was to investigate the role of Ca 2+ in the regulation of VSMC cortex stiffness or elasticity and adhesion in VSMC. In this report, we used 0.2 μM Ionomycin or 0.2 μM BAPTA‐AM to increase or decrease, respectively, the intracellular level of Ca 2+ in non‐passaged, freshly isolated rat cremaster VSMCs. An atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure VSMC cortical elasticity using a nano‐indentation protocol (300 nm indentation) and AFM probes were bio‐functionalized with fibronectin to measure cell adhesion. The results demonstrate that the stiffness of the cell cortical cytoskeletal components and adhesion of vascular smooth muscle cells increases after Ionomycin treatment to increase intracellular Ca 2+ , whereas it decreases after BAPTA treatment to lower Ca 2+ . Ionomycin treatment was also observed to enhance alpha 5 integrin expression on the VSMC membrane and the F‐actin content of the cells. In contrast, BAPTA reduced the expression and F‐actin content of the cells and reduced cell membrane alpha 5 integrin expression. Our study indicates that Ca 2+ is one important signaling molecule that plays a role in regulation of cortical elasticity and adhesion of VSMC by influencing the actin‐integrin cytoskeletal axis. (NIH P01HL095486 to G.A.M).