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Concerted effect of transforming growth factor-, cyclin inhibitor p21, and c-myc on smooth muscle cell proliferation

Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226

Submitted 20 May 2003 ; accepted in final form 4 November 2003

Increased aortic smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation is a key event in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Transforming growth factor- (TGF-) is one of the potent inhibitors of SMC proliferation. The purpose of this study was 1) to explore the effect of TGF- inhibition on proliferation of SMC and expression of growth regulatory molecules like p21 and c-myc and 2) to determine whether restoration of cell cycle regulatory molecules normalizes the altered proliferation. To test the role of TGF- in SMC proliferation, using antisense plasmid DNA, we inhibited TGF- gene from aortic SMC, which resulted in a significant increase (P < 0.03) in proliferation (studied by quantifying new DNA synthesis with [³H]thymidine uptake assay). In TGF--altered SMC (TASMC), the mRNA expression (studied by RT-PCR) of c-myc was increased whereas that of the cyclin inhibitor p21 was completely inhibited. Using p21 sense plasmid DNA, we transfected p21 gene in TASMC, which restored p21 mRNA and protein expression and decreased proliferation (P < 0.002) in TASMC. Similar treatment with c-myc antisense oligonucleotides significantly (P < 0.001) decreased the proliferation of TASMC. TASMC also exhibited alteration in morphological changes in SMC but returned to normal with treatment of p21 and TGF- sense plasmid DNA. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis analysis of SMC and TASMC demonstrated differential expression of proteins relevant to cellular proliferation and atherosclerosis. This study uniquely analyzes the effect of TGF- at the molecular level on proliferation of SMC and on cell cycle regulatory molecules, implicating their potential role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

atherosclerosis; cancer; gene overexpression; reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction; antisense plasmid DNA; antisense oligonucleotide

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