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H M McCue

Publications and source records attributed to H M McCue.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Clusterin regulates vascular smooth muscle cell nodule formation and migration.

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) are the principal cellular component of the blood vessel wall where they exist in a differentiated state to maintain vascular tone. However, VSMC are not terminally differentiated and can be induced to dediffentiate, proliferate, and migrate. In fact, smooth muscle cell migration from the vascular wall into the lumen of the vessel is a central feature of occlusive vascular pathologies including atherosclerosis and intimal hyperplasia. In vitro, in the presence of an extracellular matrix, cultured vascular smooth muscle cells can migrate and invade the underlying gelatinous matrix, form multicellular nodular aggregations, and secrete the glycoprotein clusterin. Nodular cultures appear to mimic some of the properties of differentiated VSMC, in vivo. Here, to test the hypothesis that clusterin functions to modulate the formation of VSMC nodules and to facilitate cell migration a clusterin negative VSMC clone, SM-CLU13AS (Moulson and Millis, 1999, J Cell Physiol 180:355), was transiently transfected with plasmid pRcCMVCLU that contains the full-length porcine clusterin cDNA sequence under control of the CMV promoter. The transiently transfected VSMC culture expressed and secreted clusterin and formed nodules. To determine if clusterin regulates VSMC migration we used modified Boyden chamber assays. Clusterin, at 10 microg/ml, clearly promotes VSMC migration. In addition, a 15 amino acid synthetic peptide, representing amino acids 118-132 [KQTCMKFYARVCRSG] of the mature clusterin polypeptide, inhibits VSMC attachment to gelatinous substrate. Finally, clusterin appears to have a role in regulating endogenous clusterin expression in the clusterin negative clone. These results clearly establish that clusterin has functional role in VSMC nodule formation and support the conclusion that clusterin is a critical component of smooth muscle cell phenotypic modulation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1996

Endogenous TGF-beta activity is modified during cellular aging: effects on metalloproteinase and TIMP-1 expression.

In culture, nontransformed human diploid fibroblasts divide a limited number of times, resulting in a nonproliferating senescent cell culture which exhibits an altered pattern of gene expression. Previously we reported that an early event in the process of replicative senescence was an increase in the synthesis of two connective tissue degrading metalloproteinases, collagenase and stromelysin, and a decrease in the synthesis of the physiological inhibitor of those enzymes, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1). The cytokine TGF-beta1 is known to regulate the expression of each of these three genes and to be synthesized and secreted by cultured human fibroblasts. This suggested the hypothesis that the age-specific modulation of collagenase, stromelysin, and TIMP-1 expression is the result of a change in TGF-beta1 activity during replicative senescence. To test this hypothesis, the responses of early, mid, and late passage (presenescent) fibroblast cell cultures to a TGF-beta neutralizing antibody were evaluated. In early passage cell cultures, exposure to TGF-beta neutralizing antibody resulted in a significant increase in the expression of collagenase and stromelysin and decreased TIMP-1 expression. The antibody did not affect expression of either of those genes by late passage cell cultures, although late passage cultures did respond to added TGF-beta1. Quantification of the levels of active TGF-beta, using a growth inhibition assay, indicates that the level of active TGF-beta1 is decreased during replicative senescence, supporting the conclusion that the modulation of collagenase, stromelysin, and TIMP-1 expression results from diminished TGF-beta activity.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Differential expression of metalloproteinase and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase genes in aged human fibroblasts.

The basal levels of mRNAs encoding two metalloproteinases, collagenase and stromelysin, were increased as a function of in vitro serial subcultivation (cellular aging) of human fibroblasts. Procollagenase and prostromelysin synthesis and secretion were also greater in the old cultures (late passage). In contrast, the steady-state expression of mRNA for an inhibitor of metalloproteinases, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1), in late-passage cultures was lower than that in young cell cultures (early passage). Each mRNA was analyzed using total RNA preparations isolated from normal fibroblast cultures at different phases of the in vitro life span and from cultures derived from donors with the premature senescence syndromes characterized as Werner syndrome, progeria (Hutchinson-Gilford) syndrome, or Cockayne syndrome. In normal cell cultures expression of metalloproteinase mRNAs was increased after the culture had completed greater than 90% of the in vitro life span, and the reduction in TIMP-1 mRNA expression occurred after the culture had completed greater than 74% of the in vitro lifespan. In Werner syndrome cultures expression of metalloproteinase and TIMP-1 mRNAs was similar to the level of expression observed in late-passage cell cultures. Levels of metalloproteinase and TIMP-1 mRNA expression in progeria and Cockayne syndromes were similar to those of early-passage cell cultures. To determine if young and old cells were each responsive to mediators of metalloproteinase synthesis, cultures were treated with phorbol ester or cytokines. 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate treatment increased the steady-state levels of all three mRNAs in young, old, and Werner syndrome cultures and increased procollagenase levels in all cultures. Early- and late-passage cell cultures also responded to cytokines. Interleukin-1 alpha treatment increased collagenase and stromelysin mRNA levels while transforming growth factor-beta reduced the steady-state levels of both transcripts. Neither cytokine affected the steady-state level of TIMP-1 mRNA. The results indicate that in vitro cellular aging is associated with changes in expression of mRNAs encoding proteins that mediate inflammatory responses and connective tissue remodeling.

Aging↗