Sonic hedgehog stimulates the recruitment of endothelial progenitor cells

The present work focused on the Sonic hedgehog (SHH) gene that stimulates angiogenesis in the skin. It is postulated that endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are responsible for skin angiogenesis. The recruitment of endothelial progenitor cells was verified in the mouse skin transfected with the pSHH gene construct using the quantitative PCR method.

The tests were performed on male Balb/c mice. The SHH gene preparation was administered intradermally and/or intramuscularly. The assessment of the expression of EPCs angiogenic genes was performed using the qPCR method. The statistical analysis of the selected results was performed using the t-Student test. Differences were considered statistically significant when p<0.05.

Studies indicate that the SHH gene administered to mouse skin as pSHH, pSHH/PEI/NaCl and pSHH/PEI/H20 formulations recruits endothelial progenitor cells to the sites of injection. The increased expression of genes specific to endothelial progenitor cells as CD34, CD44, CD133, KDR and others was observed.

The sonic hedgehog gene stimulates the recruitment to the skin the cells expressing EPCs markers. The mechanism of proangiogenic activity of SHH is linked to EPCs mobilization. SHH gene seems to be a potential gene-candidate to proangiogenic gene therapy applications.