Synemin promotes pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell phenotypic switch in shunt‐induced pulmonary arterial hypertension

AIMS: Although considerable progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease‐associated pulmonary heart hypertension (CHD‐PAH), the clinical prognosis and overall survival of patients with CHD‐PAH remain poor. Therefore, the molecular pathogenesis of CHD‐PAH requires further investigation. The intermediate filament protein synemin (SYN) is reported to modulate phenotypic alterations and varicose vein development, but there is little understanding of its exact functions in CHD‐PAH. METHODS AND RESULTS: SYN expression in the pulmonary arterioles of CHD‐PAH patients and shunt‐induced PAH rat models was evaluated using immunohistochemistry and western blot. Cell counts and Transwell migration assays were used to assess the effect of SYN on the proliferation and migration capability of human pulmonary smooth muscle cells (hPASMCs). Adeno‐associated viruses (AAVs) have been used to suppress SYN expression in the pulmonary arterioles of rats. Such rats were further used to construct a shunt‐induced PAH animal model to investigate the function of SYN in PAH and pulmonary vascular remodelling. Compared with the normal control group, SYN expression was found to be clearly up‐regulated in the remodelled pulmonary arterioles of CHD‐PAH and shunt‐induced PAH rat models. In addition, SYN suppression increased the expression of hPASMC contractile‐phenotype markers and decreased the expression of synthetic phenotype markers, in contrast to the control group. SYN suppression also dramatically attenuated the proliferation and migration capability of hPASMCs. Conversely, SYN overexpression promoted phenotypic switch, proliferation, and migration of hPASMCs, whereas these effects were notably alleviated by the protein kinase B (AKT) inhibitor MK‐2206. Furthermore, we confirmed that SYN suppression mitigated PAH and pulmonary vascular remodelling induced by high blood flow in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that SYN may represent a promising therapeutic target in the treatment of CHD‐PAH.