Thrombin induces the release of angiopoietin-1 from platelets

Blood platelets contain angiopoietin-1, a growth factor essential for blood vessel development via stabilization of proliferating endothelial cells. It has recently been reported that angiopoietin-1 can act as a vascular stability factor (Nature Medicine 6:460, 2000). In investigating the normal tissue distribution of angiopoietin-1 from surgically-removed frozen specimens by RT-PCR, we found it consistently present in platelets and megakaryocytes, usually absent in relatively non-vascular tissue: breast, colon, lung, skin, kidney, thyroid, testicle, cervix and occasionally present in tissue enriched with vasculature: prostate, endometrium, ovary, under conditions in which mRNA stability was verified by the positive detection of internal control, actin mRNA. The consistent distribution in platelets and relatively absent distribution in non-vascular normal tissue suggested that the well-known role of platelets in maintaining vascular stability, may in part be due to platelet release of angiopoietin-1 following platelet activation. In this communication we report the incidence of Ang-1 in various normal tissues and demonstrate that thrombin-treated human platelets release angiopoietin-1 in vitro.