MURC deficiency in smooth muscle attenuates pulmonary hypertension

Nat Commun. 2016 Aug 22:7:12417. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12417.

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that caveolin-1 (Cav1) is associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension. MURC (also called Cavin-4) is a member of the cavin family, which regulates caveolar formation and functions together with caveolins. Here, we show that hypoxia increased Murc mRNA expression in the mouse lung, and that Murc-null mice exhibited attenuation of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH) accompanied by reduced ROCK activity in the lung. Conditional knockout mice lacking Murc in smooth muscle also resist hypoxia-induced PH. MURC regulates the proliferation and migration of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) through Rho/ROCK signalling. Cav1 suppresses RhoA activity in PASMCs, which is reversed by MURC. MURC binds to Cav1 and inhibits the association of Cav1 with the active form of Gα13, resulting in the facilitated association of the active form of Gα13 with p115RhoGEF. These results reveal that MURC has a function in the development of PH through modulating Rho/ROCK signalling.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Caveolin 1 / metabolism*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • GTP-Binding Protein alpha Subunits, G12-G13 / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Hypertension, Pulmonary / etiology
  • Hypertension, Pulmonary / pathology*
  • Hypoxia / complications
  • Hypoxia / pathology*
  • Lung / pathology
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Muscle Proteins / deficiency*
  • Muscle Proteins / genetics
  • Muscle Proteins / metabolism
  • Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / cytology
  • Myocytes, Smooth Muscle / metabolism*
  • Protein Binding
  • Pulmonary Artery / cytology
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors / metabolism
  • rho GTP-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • rhoA GTP-Binding Protein

Substances

  • Cav1 protein, mouse
  • Caveolin 1
  • Cavin4 protein, mouse
  • Cavin4 protein, rat
  • Muscle Proteins
  • Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors
  • GTP-Binding Protein alpha Subunits, G12-G13
  • RhoA protein, mouse
  • rho GTP-Binding Proteins
  • rhoA GTP-Binding Protein