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Pulmonary hypertension is characterized by pulmonary endothelial dysfunction. Previous work showed that systemic artery endothelial cells (ECs) express hemoglobin (Hb) α to control nitric oxide (NO) diffusion, but the role of this system in pulmonary circulation has not been evaluated. We hypothesized that up-regulation of Hb α in pulmonary ECs contributes to NO depletion and pulmonary vascular dysfunction in pulmonary hypertension. Primary distal pulmonary arterial vascular smooth muscle cells, lung tissue sections from unused donor (control) and idiopathic pulmonary artery (PA) hypertension lungs, and rat and mouse models of SU5416/hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH) were used. Immunohistochemical, immunocytochemical, and immunoblot analyses and transfection, infection, DNA synthesis, apoptosis, migration, cell count, and protein activity assays were performed in this study. Cocultures of human pulmonary microvascular ECs and distal pulmonary arterial vascular smooth muscle cells, lung tissue from control and pulmonary hypertensive lungs, and a mouse model of chronic hypoxia-induced PH were used. Immunohistochemical, immunoblot analyses, spectrophotometry, and blood vessel myography experiments were performed in this study. We find increased expression of Hb α in pulmonary endothelium from humans and mice with PH compared with controls. In addition, we show up-regulation of Hb α in human pulmonary ECs cocultured with PA smooth muscle cells in hypoxia. We treated pulmonary ECs with a Hb α mimetic peptide that disrupts the association of Hb α with endothelial NO synthase, and found that cells treated with the peptide exhibited increased NO signaling compared with a scrambled peptide. Myography experiments using pulmonary arteries from hypoxic mice show that the Hb α mimetic peptide enhanced vasodilation in response to acetylcholine. Our findings reveal that endothelial Hb α functions as an endogenous scavenger of NO in the pulmonary endothelium. Targeting this pathway may offer a novel therapeutic target to increase endogenous levels of NO in PH.

Nitric oxide (NO) was first described as a bioactive molecule through its ability to stimulate soluble guanylate cyclase, but the revelation that NO was the endothelium derived relaxation factor drove the field to its modern state. The wealth of research conducted over the past 30 years has provided us with a picture of how diverse NO signaling can be within the vascular wall, going beyond simple vasodilation to include such roles as signaling through protein S-nitrosation. This expanded view of NO's actions requires highly regulated and compartmentalized production. Importantly, resistance arteries house multiple proteins involved in the production and transduction of NO allowing for efficient movement of the molecule to regulate vascular tone and reactivity. In this review, we focus on the many mechanisms regulating NO production and signaling action in the vascular wall, with a focus on the control of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), the enzyme responsible for synthesizing most of the NO within these confines. We also explore how cross talk between the endothelium and smooth muscle in the microcirculation can modulate NO signaling, illustrating that this one small molecule has the capability to produce a plethora of responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vast amount of investigation has centered on how the endothelium and smooth muscle communicate. From this evidence, myoendothelial junctions have emerged as critical anatomical structures to regulate heterocellular cross talk. Indeed, there is now evidence that the myoendothelial junction serves as a signaling microdomain to organize proteins used to facilitate vascular heterocellular communication. This review highlights the evolving role of myoendothelial junctions in the context of vascular cell-cell communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In resistance arteries, endothelial cells (EC) make contact with smooth muscle cells (SMC), forming myoendothelial junctions (MEJ). Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) is present in the luminal side of the EC (apical EC) and the basal side of the EC (MEJ). To test if these eNOS pools acted in sync or separately, we co-cultured ECs and SMCs, then stimulated SMCs with phenylephrine (PE). Adrenergic activation causes inositol [1,4,5] triphosphate (IP 3 ) to move from SMC to EC through gap junctions at the MEJ. PE increases MEJ eNOS phosphorylation (eNOS-P) at S1177, but not in EC. Conversely, we used bradykinin (BK) to increase EC calcium; this increased EC eNOS-P but did not affect MEJ eNOS-P. Inhibiting gap junctions abrogated the MEJ eNOS-P after PE, but had no effect on BK eNOS-P. Differential lipid composition between apical EC and MEJ may account for the compartmentalized eNOS-P response. Indeed, DAG and phosphatidylserine are both enriched in MEJ. These lipids are cofactors for PKC activity, which was significantly increased at the MEJ after PE. Because PKC activity also relies on endoplasmic reticulum (ER) calcium release, we used thapsigargin and xestospongin C, BAPTA, and PKC inhibitors, which caused significant decreases in MEJ eNOS-P after PE. Functionally, BK inhibited leukocyte adhesion and PE caused an increase in SMC cGMP. We hypothesize that local lipid composition of the MEJ primes PKC and eNOS-P for stimulation by PE, allowing for compartmentalized function of eNOS in the blood vessel wall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]