Meta-vinculin distribution in adult human tissues and cultured cells.

Meta-vinculin distribution in adult human tissue was studied by immunoblotting technique. Meta-vinculin was found in smooth (aorta wall and myometrium) and cardiac muscle, rather than in skeletal muscle, liver, kidney and cultured cells - macrophages, foreskin fibroblasts, peripheral blood lymphocytes and vascular endothelial cells. In the primary culture of smooth muscle cells from human aorta the meta-vinculin/vinculin ratio was reduced, and on the onset of cell division meta-vinculin could hardly be detected. Subcultured smooth muscle cells from human aorta did not contain meta-vinculin. The data show that the presence of meta-vinculin is characteristic of 'contractile' smooth muscle cells rather than of proliferating in vitro.