h2 caiponin inhibits the morphological change induced by rho-kinase in NIH 3T3 fibroblast

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Pharmacology 2000, Vol.82 (suppl.1), p.201-201
• Main Authors: Hidekazu Setoguchi, Junji Nishimura, Katsuya Hirano, Hideo Kanaide
• Format: Article
• Language: Japanese
• ISSN: 0021-5198

Rho-kinase has an important role in cell motility and cell morphology and thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension and arteriosclerosis. However, the protein(s) which inhibits the effect of rho kinase is not known so far. h2 calponin is one of the isoforms of calponin and mainly exists in non-muscle cells. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of h2 calponin on rho kinase induced change in cell morphology. Expression of constitutively active rho kinase (ca-RK) elicited cell rounding with bleb formation in 3T3 NIH fibroblast. The ca-RK-induced morphological change was inhibited by co-expression of dominant negative form of myosin light chain or pretreatment with cytochalasin D which is known to disrupt F-actin. The population of the cells devoid of RK-induced morphological change was 45.8%. The coexpression of h2 calponin with ca-RK reduced this level to 34.2%. It is thus concluded that RK-induced morphological change involves the interaction of actin and myosin and that h2 calponin inhibits these change in cell shape. h2 calponin might be antagonizing the RK-mediated cell function.