OPC-13340, a new dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker attenuates rapid vascular smooth muscle cell growth in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

We investigated the mechanism of the antimitotic effects of calcium channel blockers in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). VSMC from SHR exhibited rapid proliferation through a quick transition from the G0/G1 to the DNA synthetic (S) phase and from the S to the G2/mitotic (M) phase, whereas the DNA synthetic rate itself was equal to that of Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). OPC-13340, a new dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker, dose-dependently decreased incorporation of [3H]thymidine into the DNA fragments in randomly cycling VSMC in SHR. Cell cycle analysis showed that the rapid transition from the S to the G2/M period was restored by OPC-13340 to the control level in WKY, whereas the quick transition from G0/G1 to S was unaffected. This antimitotic effect of OPC-13340 was reflected by attenuation of enhanced cellular protein synthesis during the G2/M period. Protein synthesis in the G0/G1 period was not influenced by OPC-13340. Thus, these data indicate that the calcium channel blocker OPC-13340 mitigates the enhanced proliferation observed in randomly cycling VSMC from SHR and that this effect is primarily due to normalization of the premature mitosis during the G2/M period.