Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-LUNG CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 309, Issue 10, Pages L1164-L1173Publisher
AMER PHYSIOLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1152/ajplung.00127.2015
Keywords
experimental pulmonary hypertension; hypoxia; SuHx; serotonin; serotonin transporter
Categories
Funding
- PAH patient association Live Life Max
- Dutch Lung Foundation [3.3.12.036]
- Netherlands CardioVascular Research Initiative
- Dutch Heart Foundation
- Dutch Federation of University Medical Centers
- Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development
- Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences
- LeDucq foundation (PHAEDRA grant)
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Increased serotonin serum levels have been proposed to play a key role in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) by regulating vessel tone and vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. An intact serotonin system, which critically depends on a normal function of the serotonin transporter (SERT), is required for the development of experimental pulmonary hypertension in rodents exposed to hypoxia or monocrotaline. While these animal models resemble human PAH only with respect to vascular media remodeling, we hypothesized that SERT is likewise required for the presence of lumen-obliterating intima remodeling, a hallmark of human PAH reproduced in the Sugen hypoxia (SuHx) rat model of severe angioproliferative pulmonary hypertension. Therefore, SERT wild-type (WT) and knockout (KO) rats were exposed to the SuHx protocol. SERT KO rats, while completely lacking SERT, were hemodynamically indistinguishable from WT rats. After exposure to SuHx, similar degrees of severe angioproliferative pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular hypertrophy developed in WT and KO rats (right ventricular systolic pressure 60 vs. 55 mmHg, intima thickness 38 vs. 30%, respectively). In conclusion, despite its implicated importance in PAH, SERT does not play an essential role in the pathogenesis of severe angioobliterative pulmonary hypertension in rats exposed to SuHx.
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