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(Circulation Research. 2006;98:163.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Going With the Flow

Smooth Muscle TRPM7 Channels and the Vascular Response to Blood Flow

Alison M Gurney

From the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.

Correspondence to Alison M. Gurney, Faculty of Life Sciences, Floor 2, Core Technology Facility, University of Manchester, 46 Grafton St, Manchester, M13 9NT UK. E-mail alison.gurney@manchester. ac.uk

See related article, pages 245–253

Key Words: functional TRPM7 channels • signal transduction • blood flow • smooth muscle cells

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Blood vessels sense and respond to the flow of circulating blood, and increases in flow most commonly lead to vasodilation and increased vascular conductance. The main sensor of flow is the endothelial lining of the blood vessel lumen, which sits at the interface between the vessel wall and flowing blood. The fluid shear stress associated with an increase in flow is detected as a mechanical stimulus by the endothelial cells, which release endothelium-derived relaxing factors onto the nearby smooth muscle cells,^1,2 causing them to relax. Because the smooth muscle cells lie below the endothelial cell layer they are normally protected from direct exposure to the fluid shear stresses caused by flowing blood. They may however sense significant shear stress from the pressure-driven flow of interstitial fluid through the vessel wall, the magnitude of which may be influenced by blood flow.³ Smooth muscle cells become exposed directly to the shear stresses of flowing blood when the endothelial cell layer is damaged, which occurs at the anastomoses of vascular grafts, in vessels subject to balloon angioplasty, and in atherosclerotic lesions. Under these conditions, direct effects of fluid shear stress on smooth muscle cells are likely to become important.

Whereas acute changes in blood flow influence vessel diameter and tone, more persistent changes in flow lead to chronic and profound alterations in blood vessel structure, involving cell proliferation, apoptosis, altered extracellular matrix, and even arteriogenesis.⁴ These adaptations have generally been investigated in relation to the effects of fluid flow on endothelial cells. Although . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Functional TRPM7 Channels Accumulate at the Plasma Membrane in Response to Fluid Flow

Elena Oancea, Joshua T. Wolfe, and David E. Clapham
Circ. Res. 2006 98: 245-253. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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