Angiogenesis Flashcards
What is angiogenesis?
Formation of a new blood vessel from pre-existing blood vessels
What is vasculogenesis?
Early stages of blood vessel formation during development (bone marrow progenitor cells have a big contribution)
What is the first organ system that forms in embryo?
Blood vessels
What is the most common way in which new blood vessels are formed?
Angiogenesis e.g. wound healing or menstrual cycle
What is arteriogenesis?
Collateral growth that is dependent on shear stress and external factors like macrophages
What is normally the stimulus for angiogenesis?
Need for new blood vessels- mainly hypoxia
What happens in response to need for new blood vessels?
Growth factors are released that activate endothelial cells in pre-existing capillaries (small vessels)
What happens to the endothelial cells after being activated?
They undergo a conformation change where they go from being part of a very organised monolayer to sending out filopodia and begin to migrate towards growth factors
What needs to happen of endothelial cells to be able to send out filopodia and migrate?
Cytoskeleton of tip cell must be modified and it needs to control the interaction with neighbouring cells at cell-cell junctions
What will cause tip cells to stop moving?
They will keep moving until they find another tip cell with which they will fuse
How do tip cells move?
They themselves don’t divide, they require their neighbouring cells to divide behind them to push the tip cells towards the growth factor
What animal has helped advance knowledge of angiogenesis?
Zebrafish embryos
What activates of angiogenesis are there?
VEGFs FGFs PDGFB EGF LPA
What inhibitors of angiogenesis are there?
Thrombospondin-1
Statins
What happens one allele of VEGF is lost?
It is incompatible with life
What is HIF?
Hypoxia induced transcription factor which is important for regulation of genes involved in angiogenesis
What happens to HIF under normal conditions?
HIF is inhibited by Von Hippel-Lindau (a tumour suppressor gene) so doesn’t drive expression of angiogenesis
What happens to HIF under hypoxic conditions?
Von Hippel-Lindau doesn’t bind to HIF so HIF is mobilised and it can translocate into the nucleus and drive expression of genes involved in angiogenesis
What does VEGF mean?
Vascular endothelial growth factor- by far the best known pro-angiogenic growth factor
How many members of the VEGF family are there?
5 VEGF-A VEGF-B VEGF-C VEGF-D PIGF
How many tyrosine kinase receptors for VEGF are there?
3
VEGFR-1
VEGFR-2
VEGFR-3
How many coreceptors for VEGF are there?
Neuropilin-1
Neuropilin-2
What is the major mediator of VEGF-dependent angiogenesis?
VEGFR-2 - it activates signalling pathways that regulate endothelial cell migration, survival and proliferation
What leads the outgrowth of blood vessel sprouts towards gradients of VEGF?
Specialised endothelial tip cells
By what pathway are tip cells selected?
Notch