Constitutive smooth muscle tumour necrosis factor regulates microvascular myogenic responsiveness and systemic blood pressure.

ABSTRACT: Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) is a ubiquitously expressed cytokine with functions beyond the immune system. In several diseases, the induction of TNF expression in resistance artery smooth muscle cells enhances microvascular myogenic vasoconstriction and perturbs blood flow. This pathological role prompted our hypothesis that constitutively expressed TNF regulates myogenic signalling and systemic haemodynamics under non-pathological settings. Here we show that acutely deleting the TNF gene in smooth muscle cells or pharmacologically scavenging TNF with etanercept (ETN) reduces blood pressure and resistance artery myogenic responsiveness; the latter effect is conserved across five species, including humans. Changes in transmural pressure are transduced into intracellular signals by membrane-

SUBMITTER: Kroetsch JT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5382284 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature