Elevated expression of urotensin II and its receptor in great artery of type 2 diabetes and its significance

Urotensin II (U-II) and its receptor G-protein-coupled receptor GPR14 (UT) exert a broad spectrum of biological functions such as vascular remodeling and vasoactive cardiac inotropic. Now some preclinical and clinical studies showing that they may play an important role in insulin resistance. Then to research the role of U-II and UT in the vascular complication of type 2 diabetes especially in the big artery, we chose the GK rat who is the diabete-2 naturally. Through the HE stain and red oil O stain to chose the artery specimens that have no Atheromatous plaque, no Fatty streak and no Fibrous plaque. The immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to determine the degree of the expression and location of U-II and UT in the aorta. We found that U-II was significant up-regulated in the endothelial cell and adventitia of GK rat compared with healthy controls on both protein and mRNA levels. The UT was only highly enhanced in the endothelial. In the adventitia there is no difference on the quantity between two of them, These results suggest that the U-II and UT play an important role in the diabetic angiopathy especially in the large artery and maybe imply a new way to prevent the injury of artery in the diabete-2 patient.