Cardiology Research, ISSN 1923-2829 print, 1923-2837 online, Open Access
Article copyright, the authors; Journal compilation copyright, Cardiol Res and Elmer Press Inc
Journal website https://www.cardiologyres.org

Original Article

Volume 12, Number 4, August 2021, pages 231-237

Pharmacological Alteration of Cellular Mechanical Properties in Pulmonary Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells of Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1. Morphological and immunocytochemical assessments of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) obtained from a healthy control (N-PASMCs) and an idiopathic pulmonary hypertension patient (PAH-PASMCs). Immunocytochemistry of smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SM-MHC) and vimentin revealed that almost all cells were SM-MHC-positive smooth muscle cells, and their morphological features were similar between N-PASMCs and PAH-PASMCs. Scale bar: 100 µm. DAPI: 4’, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole.
Figure 2.
Figure 2. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurement of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). (a) Schematic of AFM measurement for PASMCs. (b) Typical force curve (upper panel) and stress relaxation curve (lower panel) of PASMCs in AFM measurement. (c) An example of topographic and the apparent Young’s modulus images of PASMC obtained in AFM force curve measurement. Scale bar: 30 µm.
Figure 3.
Figure 3. The apparent Young’s modulus of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) derived from healthy controls (N-PASMCs) and PASCMCs derived from a patient with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH-PASMCs) in response to sildenafil treatment. (a) The logE0, of N-PASMCs in untreated, DMSO, and sildenafil-treated conditions. (b) The logE0of PAH-PASMCs in untreated, DMSO, and sildenafil-treated conditions. DMSO: dimethylsulfoxide.
Figure 4.
Figure 4. Mechanical properties of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASCMCs) derived from a patient with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH-PASMCs) in response to macitentan and riociguat treatment. (a) The apparent Young’s modulus normalized with that of untreated cells, logE0/logEc of PAH-PASMCs in response to macitentan treatment. (b) α of macitentan-treated PAH-PASMCs. (c) The log E1 of macitentan-treated PAH-PASMCs. (d) The logE0/logEc of riociguat-treated PAH-PASMCs. (e) α of riociguat-treated PAH-PASMCs. (f) The logE1 of riociguat-treated PAH-PASMCs. (g) The logE0/log Ec of PAH-PASMCs with combination treatment. (h) α of PAH-PASMCs with combination treatment. (i) The logE1 of PAH-PASMCs with combination treatment. *P < 0.05 vs. DMSO-treated PASMCs by ANOVA. **P < 0.05 by Student’s t-test. DMSO: dimethylsulfoxide; ANOVA: analysis of variance.