Connective tissue cells, cell proliferation and synthesis of extracellular matrix-a review

The ubiquitous connective tissues contain a wide range of cells including fibroblasts, osteoblasts and chondroblasts. Recently it has been demonstrated that another principal cell of the connective tissue is the smooth muscle cell in several organ systems. These have been shown to be responsible for the synthesis of the connective tissue matrix components of the uterine myometrium and of the arterial system, including collagen, both elastic fibre proteins and glycosaminoglycan. Microtubule inhibitors such as colchicine and vinblastine, and iron chelators such as alpha,alpha -dipyridyl have been used to study their morphologic and chemical effects on collagen synthesis and secretion. Colchicine produces an increase in large Golgi-associated vacuoles, which sometimes contain material reminiscent of aggregates of collagen macromolecules. Vinblastine produces alterations in the endoplasmic reticulum cisternae similar to alterations seen in ascorbic acid deficiency, and alpha,alpha-dipyridyl increases the frequency of regions in cells, interpretable as potential sites of communication of rough endoplasmic reticulum cisternae with the cell surface. Ferritin conjugated anti-procallagen sera were used to localize procollagen in cells and demonstrated procollagen not only in the cisternae of rough endoplasmic reticulum but in all of the elements of the Golgi complex as well. The studies reported in this review have shown that in cell culture arterial smooth muscle will produce not only the microfibrillar protein of the elastic fibre but soluble and/or insoluble elastin as well. Recent studies on serum factors responsible for the proliferation of connective tissue cells have demonstrated that at least one of the principal factors responsible for fibroblast and/or smooth muscle cell proliferation in culture is derived from thrombocytes. Medium containing serum derived from cell-free plasma lacks most of this proliferative effect which can be reinstated when platelets are present during recalcification to form serum. This effect is due to the platelet release reaction as shown by combining supernatant factors derived from platelets exposed to purified thrombin to cell-free, plasma derived serum. Studies with macrophages have also suggested that phagocytic macrophages release factor(s) into a cell culture medium that may also participate in stimulating fibroblasts to proliferate in vitro. The means by which these factors stimulate fibroblast proliferation and connective tissue synthesis remains to be elucidated.