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Published on: June 23, 2014
Injury-Mediated Vascular Regeneration Requires Endothelial ER71/ETV2
Changwon Park1, Tae-Jin Lee1, Suk Ho Bhang1
1Department of Pediatrics (C.P., H.S.C.), Children's Heart Research and Outcomes Center (C.P.), Molecular and Systems Pharmacology Program (C.P.), Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta; Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL (T.M.K., N.U., M.U-F.); School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea (S.H.B.); School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (B-S.K.); Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea (D.J.L., D-S.L.); RIKEN BioResource Center, Japan (H.M.); the Departments of Pathology and Immunology (T-J.L., F.L., K.C.), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (R.N., I.P-R., R.S.A.), Developmental Biology (S.S.O., D.M.O.), Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (B. C.), Developmental, Regenerative, and Stem cell Biology Program (D.M.O., R.S.A., K.C.), Washington University School of Medicine, MO.
The transcription factor Ets variant 2 (ETV2) is crucial for adult vascular regeneration and repair. Its absence impairs neovascularization, while its expression promotes blood vessel formation and recovery from ischemic injury.
Area of Science:
- Vascular Biology
- Molecular Biology
- Regenerative Medicine
Background:
- Angiogenesis is vital for treating ischemic conditions.
- Ets variant 2 (ETV2) is essential for embryonic hematopoietic and vascular development.
- ETV2's role in adult angiogenesis remained unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the function of ETV2 in postnatal vascular regeneration.
- Determine ETV2's mechanism in neovascularization and response to ischemic injury.
Main Methods:
- Utilized endothelial-specific Etv2 conditional knockout mice.
- Employed various ischemic injury models (eye, skin, hindlimb).
- Assessed neovascularization, blood perfusion recovery, and gene expression (VEGFR2, VEGF).
- Used lentiviral gene delivery to modulate Etv2 and VEGFR2 expression.
Main Results:
- Endothelial Etv2 expression is induced post-injury, not under basal conditions.
- Etv2 deficiency impaired neovascularization in response to multiple injuries.
- ETV2 upregulated fetal liver kinase 1 (Flk1/VEGFR2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) response.
- ETV2 overexpression enhanced VEGF-mediated endothelial sprouting and improved blood perfusion recovery in ischemic hindlimbs.
- Lentiviral Flk1 expression rescued angiogenesis defects in Etv2 knockout mice.
- Genetic interaction studies revealed epistasis between ETV2 and FLK1 in vascular regeneration.
Conclusions:
- ETV2 plays a critical, obligatory role in adult vascular repair and regeneration.
- ETV2 is a key regulator of postnatal angiogenesis, acting upstream of VEGFR2 signaling.
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