Sl. Griffith et al., PULMONARY ARTERIAL SMOOTH-MUSCLE CONTRACTILITY IN HYPOXIA-INDUCED PULMONARY-HYPERTENSION, Journal of applied physiology, 77(1), 1994, pp. 406-414
The highly compliant low-resistance pulmonary vasculature is markedly
altered with chronic hypoxia. Remodeling in response to hypoxia and/or
hypertension involves hypertrophy and hyperplasia of smooth muscle an
d excessive deposition of connective tissue that likely contributes to
the maintenance or exasperates the already elevated pulmonary arteria
l (PA) pressure. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effe
ct of chronic hypoxia on the contractile properties of PA smooth muscl
e. Isometric and isotonic experiments were performed on excised PA rin
gs from pulmonary hypertensive (induced by 14 days of hypoxia) Sprague
-Dawley rats. A doubling of the vessel wall thickness occurred during
the development of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. Functionall
y, there was a decrease in isometric stress (force to cross-sectional
area ratio). No difference was detected in the velocity of shortening
or in total shortening ability. This study provides evidence that, in
addition to the morphological changes, changes in PA smooth muscle con
tractility also appear to play a role in the development and/or mainte
nance of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension.