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Our results suggest that neointimal cells in the rat balloon injury model mostly derive from pre-existing vascular cells and that only a small population of those cells come from BM-derived progenitors.

Nicotine acts through its receptors in VSMC to activate the ERK-Egr-1 signaling cascade that induces cell proliferation and exacerbates post-injury neointimal development.

A cDNA from Penicillium minioluteum HI-4 encoding a dextranase (1,6-a-glucan hydrolase, EC 3.2.1 .l 1) was isolated and characterized. cDNA clones corresponding to genes expressed in dextran-induced cultures were identified by differential hybridization. Southern hybridization and restriction mapping analysis of selected clones revealed four different groups of cDNAs. The dextranase cDNA was identified after expressing a cDNA fragment from each of the isolated groups of cDNA clones in the Escherichia coli T7 system. The expression of a 2 kb cDNA fragment in E. coli led to the production of a 67 kDa protein which was recognized by an anti-dextranase polyclonal antibody. The cDNA contains 2109 bp plus a poly(A) tail, coding for a protein of 608 amino acids, including 20 N-terminal amino acid residues which might correspond to a signal peptide. There was 29% sequence identity between the P. minioluteum dextranase and the dextranase from Arthrobacter sp. CB-8.