Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death among the population of the developed countries of the world for many years. According to statistic data 17.9 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2016 of the system, which is approximately 44 % of the total number of deaths (World health statistics 2017: monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals).Great contribution to the development of cardiovascular diseases is made by pathological conditions associated with violation of contractile functions of smooth muscles. Regulation of contractile and electrical properties of smooth muscle cells is being actively studied and is an actual topic for the last decades. However, some questions concerning the mechanisms of excitation-contraction coupling in vascular smooth muscle cells remain unclear.In particular, interaction of processes involved in the regulation of the cell volume and smooth muscle cells contractile activity is of the great interest. At the present time, many authors consider electroneutral Na+, K+, 2Cl- cotransport as the main regulator of the cell volume [2-4].Changes in cell volume are observed in various processes under normal physiological conditions, such as proliferation, growth, necrosis and apoptosis, as well as in various types of cell mobility [6, 7]. In addition, changes in cell volume may be also observed in different pathological conditions. Thus, it was shown pulmonary hypertension is accompanied with swelling of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells along with remodeling of the vessels [1]. Besides of cell volume regulation Na+, K+, 2Cl- cotransport makes an important contribution to the regulation of electrical and contractile activity of smooth muscle cells. This allows suggesting relationship between two important processes in smooth muscle cells, such as contractile activity and regulation of cell volume. However, the role of cell volume and volume-sensitive Na+, K+, 2Cl-cotransport in the regulation of contractile activity of the pulmonary artery is not sufficiently studied. This determines the need to identify the relationships in volume-dependent regulation of contractile function of smooth muscle cells of the pulmonary artery.
smooth muscle cells, pulmonary artery, 2Cl -cotransport (NKCC), Cell volume
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