Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Oct 26, 2015; 7(10): 671-684
Published online Oct 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i10.671
Enhanced caveolin-1 expression in smooth muscle cells: Possible prelude to neointima formation
Jing Huang, John H Wolk, Michael H Gewitz, James E Loyd, James West, Eric D Austin, Rajamma Mathew
Jing Huang, Michael H Gewitz, Rajamma Mathew, Department of Pediatrics, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595, United States
John H Wolk, Department of Pathology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595, United States
James E Loyd, James West, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, United States
Eric D Austin, Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, United States
Rajamma Mathew, Department of Physiology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this work.
Supported by Funds from NYMC Research Endowment Fund under the College’s intramural support program (RM); the National Institutes of Health (JEL, R01 HL111259); and K23 HL098743 (EDA).
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Vanderbilt University.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (New York Medical College) (IACUC procol # IACUC#4-1-0113), and conform to the guiding principles for the use and care of laboratory animals of the American Physiological Society, and the National Institutes of Health.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Rajamma Mathew, MD, Department of Physiology, New York Medical College, Rm # A11, Basic Science Building, Valhalla, NY 10595, United States. rajamma_mathew@nymc.edu
Telephone: +1-914-5944750
Received: April 23, 2015
Peer-review started: May 3, 2015
First decision: June 9, 2015
Revised: August 13, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 8, 2015
Published online: October 26, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Neointima in pulmonary hypertension (PH) is associated with poor prognosis. Caveolin-1, a cell membrane protein has a critical role in PH. We investigated the association of caveolin-1 and neointima formation in monocrotaline (MCT) + hypoxia-treated rats, and in human PH lung sections. The progressive caveolin-1 reduction in endothelial cells is followed by an increased caveolin-1 expression in smooth muscle cells (SMC). In human PH as well as in the MCT + hypoxia model, neointima was observed only in the arteries exhibiting an increased caveolin-1 expression in SMC. Thus, the increased caveolin-1 expression in SMC may in part, facilitate neointima formation.