| First Author | Wada H | Year | 2002 |
| Journal | J Cell Biol | Volume | 156 |
| Issue | 6 | Pages | 983-91 |
| PubMed ID | 11889139 | Mgi Jnum | J:168211 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4887344 | Doi | 10.1083/jcb.200106057 |
| Citation | Wada H, et al. (2002) Calcineurin-GATA-6 pathway is involved in smooth muscle-specific transcription. J Cell Biol 156(6):983-91 |
| abstractText | Intracellular calcium is one of the important signals that initiates the myogenic program. The calcium-activated phosphatase calcineurin is necessary for the nuclear import of the nuclear factor of activated T cell (NFAT) family members, which interact with zinc finger GATA transcription factors. Whereas GATA-6 plays a role in the maintenance of the differentiated phenotype in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), it is unknown whether the calcineurin pathway is associated with GATA-6 and plays a role in the differentiation of VSMCs. The smooth muscle-myosin heavy chain (Sm-MHC) gene is a downstream target of GATA-6, and provides a highly specific marker for differentiated VSMCs. Using immunoprecipitation Western blotting, we showed that NFATc1 interacted with GATA-6. Consistent with this, NFATc1 further potentiated GATA-6-activated Sm-MHC transcription. Induction of VSMCs to the quiescent phenotype caused nuclear translocation of NFATc1. In differentiated VSMCs, blockage of calcineurin down-regulated the amount of GATA-6-DNA binding as well as the expression of Sm-MHC and its transcriptional activity. These findings demonstrate that the calcineurin pathway is associated with GATA-6 and is required for the maintenance of the differentiated phenotype in VSMCs. |
