PATHOLOGICAL PIONEERS: In low-oxygen conditions, smooth muscle cells in the arteriole of a mouse migrate distally (red and blue cells).COURTESY OF A. SHEIKH AND D. GREIF, YALE UNIVERSITY
The paper A.Q. Sheikh et al., “Smooth muscle cell progenitors are primed to muscularize in pulmonary hypertension,” Sci Transl Med, 7:308ra159, 2015. The sleeve Blood vessels are surrounded by a layer of smooth muscle that helps regulate blood flow. In healthy lungs, this muscular sleeve ends midway along the length of arterioles, which branch into capillaries. In pulmonary hypertension (PH), however, the muscle extends distally toward the capillary bed and stiffens the vessel. The migration Previous research in mice from Yale University’s Daniel Greif and colleagues found that oxygen deprivation (hypoxia), which can cause PH in humans and animal models, leads smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in the proximal and middle arteriole to dedifferentiate, migrate distally, and redifferentiate to form new muscle. The researchers also found ...
