Effect of C-myc antisense oligodeoxynucleotides on hypoxia-induced proliferation of pulmonary vascular pericytes

To study the effect of c-myc antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) on proliferation of pulmonary vascular pericytes (PC) induced by hypoxia, cell culture, dot hybridization using probe of digoxigenin-11-dUTP-labeled cDNA,3H-thymidine incorporation, immunocytochemical technique and image analysis methods were used to observe the effect of c-myc antisense ODNs on expression of c-myc gene and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and3H-thymidine incorporation of PC induced by hypoxia. The results showed that hypoxia could significantly enhance the expression of cmyc and PCNA (P < 0.01), and elevate3H-thymidine incorporation of PC (P < 0.01), but antisense ODNs could significantly inhibit the expression of c-myc and PCNA (P < 0.05), and3Hthymidine incorporation of PC (P < 0.01). It was suggested that hypoxia could promote the proliferation of PC by up-regulating the expression of c-myc gene, but c-myc antisense ODNs could inhibit hypoxia-induced proliferation of PC by downregulating the expression of c-myc gene.