Vascular Smooth Muscle

Structure and Function in Health and Disease

This book presents key concepts in the structure and function of vascular smooth muscle cells in health and disease. Supplemental reading may be drawn from the extensive references listed at the end of each chapter. Vascular smooth muscle cell is the major cell type in blood vessels. Dysfunction of vascular smooth muscle cells is an important cause of vascular diseases, for example, atherosclerosis, hypertension, and circulatory shock. Vascular smooth muscle cells are phenotypically plastic, capable of switching between two major phenotypes — contractile/differentiated phenotype and invasive/proliferative phenotype in response to environmental clues. Chapter 1 introduces the major areas of research presented in this monograph. Chapters 2 to 4 address the structure and function of the contractile/differentiated phenotype of vascular smooth muscle cell. Chapters 5 and 6 address the developmental basis of vascular smooth muscle cell phenotype and structure and function of podosomes (invasive organelles) in the invasive/proliferative phenotype of vascular smooth muscle cell. Chapters 7 to 9 address the role of vascular smooth muscle cell dysfunction in vascular diseases — atherosclerosis, hypertension, and circulatory shock.

Contents:

• Introduction (Chi-Ming Hai)
• Structure of Differentiated/Contractile Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells (Thomas J Eddinger)
• Vascular Structure and Function (Paul H Ratz)
• Actin Filament Dynamics During Vascular Smooth Muscle Contraction (William C Cole and Michael P Walsh)
• Developmental Basis of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotypes (Christine Cheung and B C Narmada)
• Regulation of Podosomes in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Invasion of the Extracellular Matrix (Alan Mak)
• Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferation and Invasion in Atherosclerosis (Chi-Ming Hai)
• The Role of Non-Coding RNA in the Control of Vascular Contractility and Disease (C J Nicholson and K G Morgan)
• Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells as Therapeutic Target for the Treatment of Circulatory Shock (Liangming Liu, Tao Li and Chengyang Duan)

Readership: This book will be a useful reference for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and scientists who work on vascular biology, as well as physicians who work on vascular medicine.