Extracellular ATP protects endothelial cells against DNA damage.

Cell damage can lead to rapid release of ATP to extracellular space resulting in dramatic change in local ATP concentration. Evolutionary, this has been considered as a danger signal leading to adaptive responses in adjacent cells. Our aim was to demonstrate that elevated extracellular ATP or inhibition of ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 1 (ENTPD1/CD39) activity could be used to increase tolerance against DNA-damaging conditions.

Accurate genetic diagnosis of Finnish pulmonary arterial hypertension patients using oligonucleotide-selective sequencing.

The genetic basis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) among Finnish PAH patients is poorly understood. We adopted a novel-targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach called Oligonucleotide-Selective Sequencing (OS-Seq) and developed a custom data analysis and interpretation pipeline to identify pathogenic base substitutions, insertions, and deletions in seven genes associated with PAH (BMPR2, BMPR1B, ACVRL1, ENG, SMAD9, CAV1, and KCNK3) from Finnish PAH patients. This study represents the first clinical study with OS-Seq technology on patients suffering from a rare genetic disorder.

Suppression of endothelial CD39/ENTPD1 is associated with pulmonary vascular remodeling in pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction plays a role in the pathobiology of occlusive vasculopathy in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Purinergic signaling pathways, which consist of extracellular nucleotide and nucleoside-mediated cell signaling through specific receptors, are known to be important regulators of vascular tone and remodeling. Therefore, we hypothesized that abnormalities in the vascular purinergic microenvironment are associated with PAH.

Loss of bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 is associated with abnormal DNA repair in pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Occlusive vasculopathy with intimal hyperplasia and plexogenic arteriopathy are severe histopathological changes characteristic of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Although a phenotypic switch in pulmonary endothelial cells (ECs) has been suggested to play a critical role in the formation of occlusive lesions, the pathobiology of this process is poorly understood. The goal of this study was to identify novel molecular mechanisms associated with EC dysfunction and PAH-associated bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 (BMPR2) deficiency during PAH pathogenesis.