Species comparison of compounds with known blood pressure effects in a vascular smooth muscle cell collagen contraction assay.

Our results suggest that rat VSMCs predict 90% of the effects of known vasoactive compounds in the collagen contraction assay while human and canine VSMCs were slightly less predictive (80% and 70%, respectively). Although blood pressure regulation is a multi-faceted and complex process, our data suggests the collagen smooth muscle contraction assay is useful as a qualitative early screen of compounds that act directly on smooth muscle cells of the arterial vasculature.