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[Amlodipine and the mechanisms of vascular hypertrophy]
1Département de Pharmacologie, CNRS, Paris, France. marche@necker.fr
Insights
Amlodipine targets calcium ion pathways to control smooth muscle cell proliferation, offering a promising treatment for cardiovascular diseases like hypertension and atherosclerosis.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Biology
- Cellular Physiology
Context:
- Vascular hypertrophy in cardiovascular diseases involves uncontrolled smooth muscle cell proliferation.
- Calcium ions (Ca2+) and voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels are critical for smooth muscle cell activation and proliferation.
Purpose:
- To review mechanisms of smooth muscle cell activation and proliferation.
- To examine alterations in these pathways in cardiovascular diseases.
- To present amlodipine's effects on these pathways.
Summary:
- The article reviews smooth muscle cell proliferation mechanisms, emphasizing the role of Ca2+ homeostasis.
- It discusses pathway alterations in hypertension, atherosclerosis, and restenosis.
- Amlodipine's effects on these pathways and its therapeutic potential are presented.
Impact:
- Understanding amlodipine's molecular actions provides insights into treating vascular hypertrophy.
- This research highlights amlodipine as a potential therapeutic agent for specific cardiovascular conditions.
- The findings contribute to the mechanistic understanding of amlodipine in managing arterial diseases.
Abstract:
In several cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, atherosclerosis and restenosis, an uncontrolled proliferation of smooth muscle cells from the arterial wall participates in the vascular hypertrophy that is often observed to be associated with these diseases. In this article, the mechanisms of smooth muscle cell activation and proliferation are briefly reviewed, focusing on the predominant role played by Ca2+ ions and the voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels in cellular Ca2+ homeostasis. In addition, the major alterations in pathways involved in smooth muscle cell activation and proliferation that have been observed in the cardiovascular diseases under discussion are reviewed. The effects of amlodipine on the molecular/cellular pathways discussed above are then presented. Finally, we discuss recent experimental results obtained with amlodipine, which make it an excellent candidate for the treatment of those cardiovascular diseases.