Conference 'Dynamic Modulation of Smooth Muscle Phenotype Governs Pathophysiological Function of the Cerebral Vasculature'

Pr William J Pearce (Loma Linda University, School of Medicine) has been invited by Jérôme Badaut (INCIA) to give a TRAIL conference on Monday, March 18^th 2019 at 02:30 p.m. in the Broussin-Delorme room of the CHU Pellegrin.

Dynamic Modulation of Smooth Muscle Phenotype Governs Pathophysiological Functions of the Cerebral Vasculature

Smooth muscle phenotype has long been recognized to be highly plastic and dynamic. It changes during development and maturation, but also in response to pathophysiological stresses such as hypoxia and ischemia.  These phenotypic responses powerfully modulate artery structure, wall stiffness, and contractility. Indeed, many physiological and pathophysiological influences, such as the sympathetic perivascular innervation, endothelin, Protein Kinase G, and VEGF all precipitate changes in smooth muscle phenotype that alter structure-function relations in cerebral arteries. Epigenetic mediators, such as miR-29c and glucocorticoids, also bring about major changes in cerebrovascular smooth muscle phenotype. Not surprisingly, phenotypic transformation of cerebrovascular smooth muscle involves changes in thousands of genes, as revealed by RNAseq analysis of isolated cerebral microvessels. Together, these findings convincingly demonstrate that smooth muscle
phenotype is highly labile, is governed at both the cellular and molecular level by differential gene expression, and is involved to some extent in virtually all cerebrovascular pathology.