The inhibitory effects of valproic acid on rhoa-mediated vascular smooth muscle cell contraction

Objective: Valproic acid (VPA) has been used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder. Dysfunction of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is well-established to contribute to the pathogenesis of various vascular diseases. Growing evidence indicates that increased VSMC contractility plays a primary role in the development of pathological artery spasms. Nevertheless, effect of VPA on VSMC contractility, and its mechanism of action remain unknown. Here, we investigated the mechanism by which VPA inhibits VSMC contractility and vessel contraction in rat VSMCs and endothelium-deprived aortas. Design and method: We performed quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), RhoA activity assay, transfection of constitutively active (CA)-RhoA gene, and western blot analyses. We also conducted ex vivo studies using isolated rat aortas. Results: VPA inhibited phenylephrine (PE)-induced phosphorylation of myosin light chain (MLC) at Ser19 (p-MLC-Ser19) in VSMCs. VPA did not alter expressions of MLC kinase and Rho-associated kinase 1, the upstream kinases responsible for MLC phosphorylation. In addition, VPA did not affect phosphorylation of myosin phosphatase target subunit 1, a regulatory subunit of myosin phosphatase. VPA decreased RhoA mRNA expression and its protein levels in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and as expected, VPA decreased amount of active GTP-bound RhoA in a dose-dependent manner. Ectopic expression of CA-RhoA gene significantly reversed VPA-inhibited p-MLC-Ser19 and p-CPI-17-Thr38. Finally, VPA significantly attenuated PE-induced vessel contraction in endothelium-deprived rat aortas, and similar to the in vitro results, VPA decreased RhoA expression and levels of p-MLC-Ser19 and p-CPI-17-Thr38 in rat aortas. Conclusions: We demonstrate that VPA mitigates PE-induced VSMC contractility and vessel contraction by decreasing expressions of RhoA and p-MLC-Ser19 in rat VSMCs and aortas. These results suggest that VPA may be useful in the treatment of vasospastic diseases including coronary artery vasospasm and post-subarachnoid hemorrhage cerebral vasospasm.