Paper Info
Title
Pulmonary artery smooth muscle responses to KCl under normoxic and hypoxic conditions studied by means of a spatial network model
Abstract
We study contractile responses and Ca2+ signalization in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. Experimental results indicate that the contraction responses to KCl under normoxic conditions are not affected by the contribution of gap junction blockers. On the other side, under hypoxic condition, where the contraction occurs at lower concentrations of KCl, the application of gap junction blockers suppresses the hypersensitive response. In order to provide a theoretical explanation for the observed phenomenon we develop a network model of the pulmonary artery. Our results indicate that in tissues from normoxic rats the cells are connected in an efficient network that has features of a complex network, whereas the cells in tissues from hypoxic animals form a network similar to a random geometric network. Apparently, the morphological changes of the pulmonary vasculature that are induced by hypoxic conditions also entail modifications in the topology of intercellular communication pathways.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1145/1854776.1854862
BCB
Keywords
Field
DocType
network model,pulmonary vasculature,hypoxic animal,spatial network model,hypoxic condition,random geometric network,contraction response,efficient network,pulmonary artery,smooth muscle response,complex network,gap junction blockers,hypersensitive response,calcium signaling,gap junction
Contraction (grammar),Myocyte,Gap junction,Pulmonary artery,Biology,Biophysics,Internal medicine,Cardiology,Intracellular,Bioinformatics,Calcium signaling,Pulmonary vasculature
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Marko Gosak1133.43
Marko Marhl2227.31
Christelle Guibert300.34
Marie Billaud400.34
Etienne Roux500.34