Hypertension Decreases Replication Potential of Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells: Aortic Coarctation in Humans as a Model

Abstract

Human arterial smooth muscle cells cultured from tissue proximal to the site of aortic coarctation had fewer cumulative population doublings and a slower replication rate than cells grown from tissue distal to the coarctation. Since cells proximal to the coarctation presumably had been stimulated to divide excessively in vivo by chronic exposure to elevated intraarterial pressure, these results using a unique human experimental model of hypertension suggest that the number of prior cell divisions limits their further replicative potential. These characteristics of accelerated aging induced by chronic exposure to hypertension may have relevance to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.