Profilin-1 promotes the development of hypertension-induced artery remodeling

Hypertension is associated with the structural remodeling and stiffening of arteries and is known to increase cardiovascular risk. In the present study, we investigated the effects of overexpression and knock down of profilin-1 on the vascular structural remodeling in spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHRs) using an adenovirus injection to knock down or overexpress profilin-1 mRNA. As a control, blank adenovirus was injected into age-matched SHRs and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKYs). We quantified arterial structural remodeling through morphological methods, with thoracic aortas stained with hematoxylin–eosin and picosirius red. Western blotting was performed to measure the protein expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38), and peroxynitrite was quantified by immunohistochemical staining. Overexpression of profilin-1 significantly promoted aortic remodeling, including an increase in vessel size, wall thickness, and collagen content, whereas the knockdown of p...