Transforming Growth Factor-β1 Promotes the Morphological and Functional Differentiation of the Myofibroblast

Vaughan, Melville B.; Howard, Eric W.; Tomasek, James J.

doi:10.1006/excr.2000.4869

Cited by 436 publications

(408 citation statements)

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“…Several works have investigated this possibility at the cellular level (Arora and McCulloch, 1994;Vaughan et al, 2000); however, such function has remained not well established. Our study, exploring the relationship between the level of ␣-SMA expression in cultured fibroblasts and their efficiency to contract deformable silicone substrates and stress-released collagen gels, shows (1) a significantly higher contraction of LFs, expressing high levels of ␣-SMA, compared with SCFs, expressing low levels of ␣-SMA; (2) an enhancement of contractile activity in SCFs treated by TGF␤ concomitant with an increase of ␣-SMA expression.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A minimum of five lattices was assayed per experimental condition, mean values were calculated, and lattice diameter reduction was normalized to the lattice diameter before release (ϭ % contraction). Collagen lattices were then digested, and cells were harvested and counted as previously described (Vaughan et al, 2000). Contraction results were only considered if cell concentration ranged between 5.7 ϫ 10 4 and 6.3 ϫ 10 4 cells/lattice at the time of release.…”

Section: Stressed Collagen Lattice Contraction Assaymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Alpha-Smooth Muscle Actin Expression Upregulates Fibroblast Contractile Activity

Hinz

Celetta

Tomasek³

et al. 2001

MBoC

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1,117

947

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To evaluate whether ␣-smooth muscle actin (␣-SMA) plays a role in fibroblast contractility, we first compared the contractile activity of rat subcutaneous fibroblasts (SCFs), expressing low levels of ␣-SMA, with that of lung fibroblasts (LFs), expressing high levels of ␣-SMA, with the use of silicone substrates of different stiffness degrees. On medium stiffness substrates the percentage of cells producing wrinkles was similar to that of ␣-SMA-positive cells in each fibroblast population. On high stiffness substrates, wrinkle production was limited to a subpopulation of LFs very positive for ␣-SMA. In a second approach, we measured the isotonic contraction of SCF-and LF-populated attached collagen lattices. SCFs exhibited 41% diameter reduction compared with 63% by LFs. TGF␤1 increased ␣-SMA expression and lattice contraction by SCFs to the levels of LFs; TGF␤-antagonizing agents reduced ␣-SMA expression and lattice contraction by LFs to the level of SCFs. Finally, 3T3 fibroblasts transiently or permanently transfected with ␣-SMA cDNA exhibited a significantly higher lattice contraction compared with wild-type 3T3 fibroblasts or to fibroblasts transfected with ␣-cardiac and ␤-or ␥-cytoplasmic actin. This took place in the absence of any change in smooth muscle or nonmuscle myosin heavy-chain expression. Our results indicate that an increased ␣-SMA expression is sufficient to enhance fibroblast contractile activity. INTRODUCTIONEarly during healing of an open wound, resident dermal fibroblasts proliferate from the wound margin and migrate into the provisional matrix composed of a fibrin clot. About 1 week after wounding, the provisional matrix is replaced by neo-formed connective tissue, known as granulation tissue, essentially composed of small vessels, extracellular matrix, and fibroblastic cells that become activated and modulate into myofibroblasts. The main feature of myofibroblasts is represented by an important contractile apparatus similar to that of smooth muscle (Gabbiani et al., 1971), and in particular by the neo-expression of ␣-smooth muscle actin (␣-SMA), the actin isoform typical of vascular smooth muscle cells (Skalli et al., 1986). Myofibroblasts are recognized to play a central role in closing the wound tissue, through their capacity to produce a strong contractile force (for review see Grinnell, 1994;Rønnov-Jessen et al., 1996;Powell et al., 1999;Serini and Gabbiani, 1999), possibly generated within stress fibers, similar to those present in cultured fibroblasts (Skalli et al., 1986;Serini and Gabbiani, 1999). Because wound contraction takes place when de novo expressed ␣-SMA is incorporated in stress fibers (Darby et al., 1990), it has been suggested that this actin isoform plays an important role in granulation tissue contraction (for review see Serini and Gabbiani, 1999). Although stress fibers have been proposed to function as contractile organelles (Burridge, 1981;Katoh et al., 1998) and their presence has been correlated with the production of isometric tension (Harris et al., 1981), at p...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Stressed Collagen Lattice Contraction Assaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Alpha-Smooth Muscle Actin Expression Upregulates Fibroblast Contractile Activity

Hinz

Celetta

Tomasek³

et al. 2001

MBoC

Self Cite

1,117

947

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…32 It is possible that 24 hours of mechanical stress was too short to enable differences between pemphigoid and normal fibroblasts to emerge, and perhaps 48 hours might have allowed differences to have been observed. Adding TGF␤, which promotes myofibroblast differentiation, particularly in the presence of mechanical tension, 33 may also have been helpful. Furthermore, use of an alternative ␣-SMA antibody might have produced different findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Profibrotic Phenotype of Conjunctival Fibroblasts from Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid

Saw

Schmidt

Offiah

et al. 2011

The American Journal of Pathology

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Ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid is an immunobullous disease in which excessive conjunctival fibrosis causes blindness, and the pathogenesis of scarring is incompletely understood. To establish whether profibrotic fibroblasts with an altered phenotype exist in ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid, we compared the functional characteristics of pemphigoid conjunctival fibroblasts to normal conjunctival fibroblasts with respect to cell division; migration; collagen contraction; matrix metalloproteinase, secretion of collagen and chemokines; and myofibroblast differentiation. We found that pemphigoid fibroblasts showed increased cell division (P ‫؍‬ 0.01), increased migration in serum-free medium (72 ؎ 18 migrated cells versus 33 ؎ 11, P ‫؍‬ 0.04), increased collagen contraction in the presence of 10 ng/ml tumor necrosis factor-␣, increased collagen type I secretion (P ‫؍‬ 0.03), increased secretion of matrix metalloproteinase-3 (P ‫؍‬ 0.03), and increased secretion of eotaxin in response to interleukin-13 (P ‫؍‬ 0.04). Differences between pemphigoid and normal conjunctival fibroblasts with respect to collagen contraction and MMP secretion in the presence of interleukin-13 were also observed. Together, these findings indicate that pemphigoid conjunctival fibroblasts have a profibrotic phenotype that is maintained in vitro. No differences between pemphigoid fibroblasts obtained from acutely inflamed versus clinically uninflamed conjunctiva were observed. Developing effective antifibrotic therapies will require understanding of the mechanisms that both induce and maintain the profibrotic phenotype.

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“…However, other studies found that TGF-β1 promoted myofibroblast morphological and functional differentiation. It has been shown that TGF-β1 enhanced the formation of structural elements and expression of α-SMA in myofibroblasts, thereby increasing the contractile force [Vaughan et al, 2000].…”

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confidence: 99%

Nicotine inhibits myofibroblast differentiation in human gingival fibroblasts

Fang

Svoboda

2005

J of Cellular Biochemistry

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Cigarette smoking has been suggested as a risk factor for several periodontal diseases. It has also been found that smokers respond less favorably than non-smokers to periodontal therapy. Previous work in our lab has shown that nicotine inhibits human gingival cell migration. Since myofibroblasts play an important role in wound closure, we asked if nicotine affects gingival wound healing process by regulating myofibroblast differentiation. Human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) from two patients were cultured in 10% fetal bovine serum cell culture medium. Cells were pretreated with different doses of nicotine (0, 0.01, 0.1, and 1 mM) for 2 h, and then incubated with transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β1) (0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 ng/ml) with or without nicotine for 30 h. The expression level of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), a specific marker for myofibroblasts, was analyzed by Western blots, immunocytochemistry, and real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR). Phosphorylated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (Phospho-p38 MAPK) activity was analyzed by Western blots. TGF-β1 induced an increase of α-SMA protein and mRNA expression, while nicotine (1 mM) inhibited the TGF-β1-induced expression of α-SMA but not β-actin. Nicotine treatment down-regulated TGF-β1-induced p38 MAPK phosphorylation. Our results demonstrated for the first time that nicotine inhibits myofibroblast differentiation in human gingival fibroblasts in vitro; supporting the hypothesis that delayed wound healing in smokers may be due to decreased wound contraction by myofibroblasts. Keywordshuman gingival fibroblasts; myofibroblasts; α smooth muscle actin; TGFβ; p38 MAP kinase Myofibroblasts are contractile cells that share characteristics of fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells [Tomasek et al., 2002]. One of the major features of myofibroblast differentiation is the expression of smooth muscle cell markers. These markers include α-SMA, γ-SMA, smooth muscle 22 (SM22), calponin, smoothelin, meta-vinculin, h-caldesmon [Halayko and Solway, 2001]. Among these, α-SMA has been suggested as the most reliable marker of myofibroblast differentiation [Gabbiani, 2003]. Also, Dr. Masur's lab demonstrated that myofibroblast differentiation was cell density dependent in corneal fibroblasts. They found that the lower the cell density when cells were seeded in culture, the more cells differentiated into myofibroblasts. However, the myofibroblast phenotype was not terminal. The cells lost the myofibroblast

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Transforming Growth Factor-β1 Promotes the Morphological and Functional Differentiation of the Myofibroblast

Cited by 436 publications

References 43 publications

Alpha-Smooth Muscle Actin Expression Upregulates Fibroblast Contractile Activity

Alpha-Smooth Muscle Actin Expression Upregulates Fibroblast Contractile Activity

Profibrotic Phenotype of Conjunctival Fibroblasts from Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid

Nicotine inhibits myofibroblast differentiation in human gingival fibroblasts

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