http://www.jci.org/just-published en-us 2009 The American Society for Clinical Investigation http://www.jci.org/icons/banner/rss_title.gif http://content.jci.org Eiki Takimoto, Norimichi Koitabashi, Steven Hsu, Elizabeth A. Ketner, Manling Zhang, Takahiro Nagayama, Djahida Bedja, Kathleen L. Gabrielson, Robert Blanton, David P. Siderovski, Michael E. Mendelsohn, David A. Kass http://www.jci.org/articles/view/35620 q protein–coupled receptor pathways become activated and can depress function, leading to cardiac failure. Initial adaptation mechanisms to reduce cardiac damage during such stimulation remain largely unknown. Here we have shown that this initial adaptation requires regulator of G protein signaling 2 (RGS2). Mice lacking RGS2 had a normal basal cardiac phenotype, yet responded rapidly to pressure overload, with increased myocardial G_q signaling, marked cardiac hypertrophy and failure, and early mortality. Swimming exercise, which is not accompanied by G_q activation, induced a normal cardiac response, while Rgs2 deletion in G_αq-overexpressing hearts exacerbated hypertrophy and dilation. In vascular smooth muscle, RGS2 is activated by cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG), suppressing G_q-stimulated vascular contraction. In normal mice, but not Rgs2^–/– mice, PKG activation by the chronic inhibition of cGMP-selective phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) suppressed maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy, inhibiting G_q-coupled stimuli. Importantly, PKG was similarly activated by PDE5 inhibition in myocardium from both genotypes, but PKG plasma membrane translocation was more transient in Rgs2^–/– myocytes than in controls and was unaffected by PDE5 inhibition. Thus, RGS2 is required for early myocardial compensation to pressure overload and mediates the initial antihypertrophic and cardioprotective effects of PDE5 inhibitors. ]]> info:doi/10.1172/JCI35620 American Society for Clinical Investigation Daniel Vardeh, Dairong Wang, Michael Costigan, Michael Lazarus, Clifford B. Saper, Clifford J. Woolf, Garret A. FitzGerald, Tarek A. Samad http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37098 Cox2 in neurons and glial cells to determine the relative contribution of peripheral and central COX2 to inflammatory pain hypersensitivity. In these mice, basal nociceptive pain was unchanged, as was the extent of peripheral inflammation, inflammatory thermal pain hypersensitivity, and fever induced by lipopolysaccharide. By contrast, peripheral inflammation–induced COX2 expression in the spinal cord was reduced, and mechanical hypersensitivity after both peripheral soft tissue and periarticular inflammation was abolished. Mechanical pain is a major symptom of most inflammatory conditions, such as postoperative pain and arthritis, and induction of COX2 in neural cells in the CNS seems to contribute to this. ]]> info:doi/10.1172/JCI37098 American Society for Clinical Investigation