Melatonin Attenuates Vascular Smooth Muscle Contraction Through the γ-Secretase/Notch Intracellular Domain/Myocardin Pathway

Inositol 1, 4, 5-trisphosphate (IP3) signaling-mediated calcium release drives the contraction of vascular smooth muscles and hence regulates blood vessel volume and blood pressure. Melatonin supplementation has been suggested to be beneficial for hypertension. To determine whether the blood pressure-lowering effect of melatonin was accounted for by IP3 signaling, we evaluated the vasoconstriction response and IP3 signaling in isolated mouse thoracic aortic rings during melatonin incubation. C57BL/6 mice were given intraperitoneal injections daily with melatonin, and the systolic blood pressure and contractility of aortic rings from melatonin-treated mice were decreased, and the contraction suppression effect of melatonin was attributed to the impaired expression of contractile proteins in vascular smooth muscle cells rather than IP3 signaling. Our results further showed that melatonin increased the expression of gamma-secretase, which could cleave and release the notch intracellular domain, and the notch intracellular domain prevented the transcription of contractile genes by interfering with the interaction between serum response factor and myocardin, the master regulator of contractile protein. In this article, we report a novel mechanism by which melatonin regulates smooth muscle contractility that does not depend on IP3 signaling.