Diverse Roles of PKC in Vascular Smooth Muscle Contraction

This book is divided into four chapters. The first chapter represents a general review of the literature of relevant topics. Chapter two is a manuscript previously published in the American Journal of Physiology, Cell Physiology, reproduced with the kind permission of the American Physiological Society. This chapter describes the association between -tubulin and PKC and reports a novel cell structure dependent on this interaction. Chapter three is a manuscript recently submitted to Acta Physiologica. This paper examines PKCs association with one of its substrates, calponin (CaP), and the impact of changes in CaP expression levels on -actin cytoskeletal structure. Here we show that calponin may have a novel role in contraction, contributing to actin structural stability through cross-linking of actin filaments. Chapter four contains a brief discussion of the results and implications of both manuscripts, as well as recommendations for future research. In addition to a discussion of the factors contributing to the unique smooth muscle (SM) contraction, a review of certain techniques will follow. These methods were pioneered for use in the study of SM within our laboratory.

Ava DykesAssociate Service Fellow at NIOSH MorgantownNIOSH Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of MedicineMorgantown, West Virginia.