Endocrine Abstracts

This investigation used primary cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) to examine the effects of insulin (INS) on proliferation of VSMCs. In this study, protein kinase B (Akt) and p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK 1/2) signaling pathways in mediating the mitogenic actions of INS in VSMCs was investigated. Incubation of a rat VSMCs with INS (100 nM) for 10 min resulted in an increase of Akt phosphorylation by 6-fold (P<0.001) and ERK 1/2 phospho...