Skip to main content
. 2022 Jun 8;10(6):1348. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10061348

Figure 1.

Figure 1

The RhoA/ROCK pathway and PDE-5 pathway contribute to smooth muscle contraction. ROCK prevents dephosphorylation of phosphorylated MLC and contributes to smooth muscle contraction by activating the LIMK2/cofilin pathway and the ERM pathway. PDE-5 decomposes increased cGMP from eNOS/NO, contributing to the contraction of VSMC. cGMP: cyclic Guanosine monophosphate; eNOS: endothelial nitric oxide synthase; ERM: ezrin/radixin/moesin; GTP: guanosine triphosphate; LIMK: Lin11-Isl1-Mec3 kinase; MLC: myosin light chain; NO: nitric oxide; PDE-5: phosphodiesterase-5; ROCK: rho-associated protein kinase.