Angiotensin II stimulates AT1 receptors on rat cardiac fibroblasts, increasing extracellular matrix protein gene expression, suggesting a regulatory role in cardiac remodeling.
Results from this study indicate that neonatal and adult rat cardiac fibroblasts in culture express AT1 receptors for Ang II. Ang II stimulation of AT1 receptors results in an increased gene expression for ECM proteins. These data suggest that Ang II might have important regulatory roles over cardiac fibroblast function under normal and pathological conditions.
Villarreal et al. (Wed,) studied this question.