SN promote retinal pathological neovascularization through activation of EGFR, IR and IGF-1R

Secretoneurin (SN) is a neuropeptide derived from secretogranin II (SgII), mainly are involved in neuroendocrine system. The present study is aimed to investigate the role of SN in retinal pathological neovascularization and physiological vasculature. In the study, we found the overexpression of SgII in retina of Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy (OIR) mouse model, and SgII knockdown could alleviate pathological retinal neovascularization in OIR. Conversely, SgII knockdown have no detectable effect in embryonic physiological vasculature. Experiments in vitro and in vivo further verified SN's angiogenic effect on the eye. In further, we identified that SN promoted angiogenesis via activation of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), Insulin Receptor (IR), and Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF-1R), and followed by the phosphorylation of PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling. In summarize, our study suggests that SN might be a postnatal angiogenic factor, which was critically involved in retinal pathological neovascularization, but not in embryonic retinal physiological vasculature. Moreover, we identified the receptors and the downstream signaling involved in SN induced retinal angiogenesis.