Patent ID: 8165517

Claim:
A method for identifying whether a compound inhibits proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells in response to vascular injury comprising contacting, in the presence of a candidate compound, aortic smooth muscle cells that express prostaglandin D2 receptors with an amount of a prostaglandin D2 receptor agonist effective to activate MAP kinase activity in said aortic smooth muscle cells in the absence of the candidate compound, and determining whether activation of MAP kinase activity in the aortic smooth muscle cells contacted with the prostaglandin D2 agonist in the presence of the candidate compound is inhibited compared to activation of MAP kinase activity in the aortic smooth muscle cells contacted with the prostaglandin D2 agonist in the absence of the candidate compound, wherein inhibition of activation of the MAP kinase activity in the presence of the candidate compound compared to activation of MAP kinase activity indicates that the candidate compound is an inhibitor of the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells in response to vascular injury and wherein the prostaglandin D2 receptor agonist is prostaglandin D2 or a biologically active metabolite of prostaglandin D2, and the prostaglandin D2 receptor is a prostaglandin D2 receptor that has an amino acid sequence at least 90% identical to SEQ ID NO:2 or SEQ ID NO:4 which when expressed in cells in the presence of prostaglandin D2 results in MAP kinase activity.