Antiproliferative effects of drugs affecting different signalling pathways on rat and human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells

Current treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) include pulmonary vasodilators which may also inhibit PASMC proliferation. The aim of this study was to compare the antiproliferative effects of multiple drugs on rat and human PASMC (rPASMC and hPMASC, respectively) in vitro. rPASMCs and hPASMC were starved for 24 h, then treated with different inhibitors and incubated for 48 h in 1% foetal calf serum plus endothelin-1, 5-HT and U46619. Cell number was estimated by the MTT test. Viable cells increased by 160-180% in 48 h. Activation of the cGMP pathway with the soluble guanylyl cyclase activators riociguat and YC-1 (≤ 10 µM) or the cAMP pathway by the adenylyl cyclase activator f…