Effect of angiotensin II on human vascular smooth muscle cell growth

Inhibitors of the production of endogenous angiotensin II (A-II) can diminish the hyperplastic response produced by arterial injury in animals; however, a similar effect in humans has not been observed. To explain this discrepancy, we compared the effect of A-II on rat aortic smooth muscle cells (R-SMC) and smooth muscle cells derived from human saphenous veins (H-SMC). A-II (10-1000 nM) significantly increased the proliferative rate of R-SMC incubated in 10% serum, but a similar effect was not observed with H-SMC. Incubation of R-SMC for 24 hr with A-II (1 microM) produced a significant increase in cell size (7%) and protein production (18%), whereas no hypertrophic response was noted in H-SMC exposed to A-II. In neither R-SMC nor H-SMC did A-II, in any concentration, induce cell migration. Stimulation of R-SMC with A-II resulted in tyrosine phosphorylation of five proteins (approximately 120, approximately 108, approximately 68, 45, 42 kDa). The 42- and 45-kDa proteins, which we have previously identified as mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAP-K), remained phosphorylated for 1 hr. In H-SMC, only MAP kinases were tyrosine phosphorylated, but with less intensity than in R-SMC, and only for 20 min. In protein kinase C-depleted SMC, tyrosine phosphorylation of MAP kinase was inhibited in both cell types. A-II produced hypertrophy and hyperplasia of R-SMC, but not H-SMC. Differences in intracellular signaling might account for these disparate effects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)