The effects of prenatal stress on expression of CaMK-II and L-Ca2+ channel in offspring hippocampus

Antenatal Hypoxia Affects Pulmonary Artery Contractile Functions via Downregulating L-type Ca2+ Channels Subunit Alpha1 C in Adult Male Offspring

Background

Antenatal intrauterine fetal hypoxia is a common pregnancy complication that has profound adverse effects on an individual's vascular health later in life. Pulmonary arteries are sensitive to hypoxia, but adverse effects of antenatal hypoxia on pulmonary vasoreactivities in the offspring remain unknown. This study aimed to determine the effects and related mechanisms of antenatal hypoxia on pulmonary artery functions in adult male offspring.

Methods and Results

Pregnant Sprague‐Dawley rats were housed in a normoxic or hypoxic (10.5% O₂) chamber from gestation days 10 to 20. Male offspring were euthanized at 16 weeks old (adult offspring). Pulmonary arteries were collected for vascular function, electrophysiology, target gene expression, and promoter methylation studies. In pulmonary artery rings, contractions to serotonin hydrochloride, angiotensin II, or phenylephrine were reduced in the antenatal hypoxic offspring, which resulted from inactivated L‐type Ca²⁺ channels. In pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells, the basal whole‐cell Ca²⁺ currents, as well as vasoconstrictor‐induced Ca²⁺ transients were significantly reduced in antenatal hypoxic offspring. In addition, increased promoter methylations within L‐type Ca²⁺ channel subunit alpha1 C were compatible with its reduced expressions.

Conclusions

This study indicated that antenatal hypoxia programmed long‐lasting vascular hypocontractility in the male offspring that is linked to decreases of L‐type Ca²⁺ channel subunit alpha1 C in the pulmonary arteries. Antenatal hypoxia resulted in pulmonary artery adverse outcomes in postnatal offspring, was strongly associated with reprogrammed L‐type Ca²⁺ channel subunit alpha1 C expression via a DNA methylation‐mediated epigenetic mechanism, advancing understanding toward the effect of antenatal hypoxia in early life on long‐term vascular health.

A new recombinant pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide-derived peptide efficiently promotes glucose uptake and glucose-dependent insulin secretion

The recombinant peptide, DBAYL, a promising therapeutic peptide for type 2 diabetes, is a new, potent, and highly selective agonist for VPAC2 generated through site-directed mutagenesis based on sequence alignments of pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), and related analogs. The recombinant DBAYL was used to evaluate its effect and mechanism in blood glucose metabolism and utilization. As much as 28.9 mg recombinant DBAYL peptide with purity over 98% can be obtained from 1 l of Luria-Bertani medium culture by the method established in this study and the prepared DBAYL with four mutations (N10Q, V18L, N29Q, and M added to the N-terminal) were much more stable than BAY55-9837. The half-life of recombinant DBAYL was about 25 folds compared with that of BAY55-9837 in vitro. The bioactivity assay of DBAYL showed that it displaced [(125)I]PACAP38 and [(125)I]VIP from VPAC2 with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of 48.4 ± 6.9 and 47.1 ± 4.9 nM, respectively, which were significantly lower than that of BAY55-9837, one established VPAC2 agonists. DBAYL enhances the cAMP accumulation in CHO cells expressing human VPAC2 with a half-maximal stimulatory concentration (EC(50)) of 0.68 nM, whereas the receptor potency of DBAYL at human VPAC1 (EC(50) of 737 nM) was only 1/1083 of that at human VPAC2, and DBAYL had no activity toward human PAC1 receptor. Western blot analysis of the key proteins of insulin receptor signaling pathway: insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) and glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) indicated that the DBAYL could significantly induce the insulin-stimulated IRS-1 and GLUT4 expression more efficiently than BAY55-9837 and VIP in adipocytes. Compared with BAY55-9837 and PACAP38, the recombinant peptide DBAYL can more efficiently promote insulin release and decrease plasma glucose level in Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice. These results suggested that DBAYL could efficiently improve glucose uptake and glucose-dependent insulin secretion by VPAC2-mediated effect.