THE PREDOMINANT FORM OF FIBROBLAST GROWTH-FACTOR RECEPTOR EXPRESSED BY PROLIFERATING HUMAN ARTERIAL SMOOTH-MUSCLE CELLS IN CULTURE IS TYPE-I

Fibroblast growth factors (FGF) and their specific receptors (FGFR) ro les, including induction of proliferation in smooth muscle contributes to restenosis after coronary artery balloon angioplasty. levels of ex pression of the four major types of FGFR were studied in human arteria l smooth muscle cell isolates. Cell lines were established by the expl ant technique from intima/media tissue samples obtained from patients undergoing either coronary artery bypass surgery or cardiac transplant ation procedures. Expression of FGFR isoforms was analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using primers for the conserved tyrosine kinase (TK) domain followed by Southern blotting w ith TK insert probes unique to each isoform. The data indicate that FG FR I is the major form of FGF receptor mRNA expressed by proliferating human arterial smooth muscle cells. This strongly suggests that it is this type of FGFR that mediates the signal transduction cascade assoc iated with mitogenesis in proliferating human smooth muscle cells. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.