Analysis of pulmonary vasodilator responses to the Rho-kinase inhibitor fasudil in the anesthetized rat

摘要

the small GTP-binding protein Rho and its downstream effector Rho-kinase play an important role in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle tone (3, 4, 6, 18, 20, 28, 34, 36). It has been hypothesized that the Rho-kinase system is constitutively active in regulating vasoconstrictor tone and that upregulation of this pathway occurs in a variety of cardiovascular diseases (8, 19, 21, 22, 32, 33, 35). Rho-kinase has been shown to be a potential therapeutic target in a number of cardiovascular diseases including pulmonary hypertension (1, 2, 10, 12, 15, 16, 26, 27, 29, 38)