Waś Halina
Department of Cell Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, 7 Gronostajowa St., 30-387 Krakow, Poland.
Postepy Biochem. 2005;51(2):209-14.
A major advance in the field of lymphangiogenesis has come from the discovery of lymphatic endothelium-specific markers. VEGFR-3 was the first molecule found to be expressed in the lymphatic endothelium. Two members of the VEGF family, VEGF-C and VEGF-D are lymphangiogenic when activate VEGFR-3. In addition to VEGFR-3, some other genes have been shown to be mainly expressed in lymphatic endothelial cells. Prox-1 is a homeobox transcription factor gene product involved in the growth and elongation of the lymphatic vessel sprouts during development. Lymphatic vessel endothelial HA receptor-1 (LYVE-1), is a receptor for extracellular matrix/lymphatic fluid glycosaminoglycan in lymphatic endothelial cells. Finally, podoplanin is a glomerular podocyte membrane mucoprotein, which occurs together with VEGFR-3 in the lymphatic endothelium. The discovery of molecules that are specifically expressed by lymphatic endothelium has made possible more accurate and simplified lymphatic vessel identification and targeting the lymphatic vasculature in the treatment of various diseases.
淋巴管生成领域的一项重大进展来自于淋巴管内皮特异性标志物的发现。血管内皮生长因子受体-3（VEGFR-3）是首个被发现于淋巴管内皮中表达的分子。血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）家族的两个成员，VEGF-C和VEGF-D，在激活VEGFR-3时具有淋巴管生成作用。除VEGFR-3外，一些其他基因已被证明主要在淋巴管内皮细胞中表达。Prox-1是一种同源框转录因子基因产物，在发育过程中参与淋巴管芽的生长和延长。淋巴管内皮透明质酸受体-1（LYVE-1）是淋巴管内皮细胞中细胞外基质/淋巴液糖胺聚糖的受体。最后，血小板反应蛋白-1是一种肾小球足细胞膜黏蛋白，它与VEGFR-3共同存在于淋巴管内皮中。淋巴管内皮特异性表达分子的发现使得更准确、更简便地识别淋巴管以及在各种疾病治疗中靶向淋巴管系统成为可能。
