Figure 7.

Pulmonary arterial plasma aldosterone (ALDO) levels from patients with PAH ex vivo are sufficient to stimulate activation of Raptor and p70S6K in PASMCs in vitro. A) Plasma was acquired from the pulmonary artery or wedge position in patients with PAH (n = 4) or controls (n = 3) referred for right heart catheterization, and aldosterone levels were measured by ELISA. B, C) Anti-Raptor and anti-P-Raptor(Ser792) immunohistochemistry (B) and anti-P-p70S6K(Thr389) (green), anti-p70S6K (green), and DAPI (blue) immunofluorescence staining (C) was performed on untreated normal human PASMCs or PASMCs treated with CM that was supplemented with pulmonary artery plasma (10% final concentration) from patients with PAH in the presence or absence of spironolactone (SP; 10 μM; n = 3–4). Data are presented as mean ± sem. Representative micrographs and immunofluorescence images are shown.