Alterations of adrenomedullin and its receptor system components in calcified vascular smooth muscle cells.

Abstract Vascular calcification is a common finding in many cardiovascular diseases. Paracrine/autocrine changes in calcified vessels, and the secreted factors participate in and play an important role in the progress of calcification. Adrenomedullin (ADM) is a potent vasodilator peptide secreted by vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and vascular endothelial cells. Recently, receptor activity-modifying proteins (RAMPs) have been shown to transport calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CRLR) to the cell surface to present either as CGRP receptor or ADM receptor. In this work, we explored the production of ADM, alterations and significance of ADM mRNA and its receptor system components—CRLR and RAMPs mRNA in calcified VSMCs. Our results showed that calcium content, 45 Ca 2+ uptake and alkaline phosphatases (ALPs) activity in calcified VSMCs were increased, respectively, compared with control VSMCs. Content of ADM in medium was increased by 99% ( p r =0.83, 0.92 and 0.93, respectively, all p 's