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Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
Myofibroblasts are unusual cells that share
morphological and functional features of muscle and
nonmuscle cells. Such cells are thought to control liver
blood flow and kidney glomerular filtration rate by
having unique contractile properties. To determine how these cells achieve their contractile properties and
their resemblance to muscle cells, we have characterized two myofibroblast cell lines. Here, we demonstrate
that myofibroblast cell lines from kidney mesangial
cells (BHK) and liver stellate cells activate extensive
programs of muscle gene expression including a wide variety of muscle structural proteins. In BHK cells, six
different striated myosin heavy chain isoforms and
many thin filament proteins, including troponin T and
tropomyosin are expressed. Liver stellate cells express
a limited subset of the muscle thick filament proteins expressed in BHK cells. Although these cells are mitotically active and do not morphologically differentiate
into myotubes, we show that MyoD and myogenin are
expressed and functional in both cell types. Finally,
these cells contract in response to endothelin-1 (ET-1);
and we show that ET-1 treatment increases the expression of sarcomeric myosin.
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