Koibuchi Nobutaka, Taniyama Yoshiaki, Nagao Kaori, Ogihara Toshio, Kaneda Yasufumi, Morishita Ryuichi
Division of Clinical Gene Therapy, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, 2-2 Yamada-oka, Suita 565-0871, Japan.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2006 May 26;344(1):339-45. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2006.03.140.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to play an essential role in vascular development. We have overexpressed VEGF122 or VEGF170, which are equivalent to mouse VEGF120 and VEGF164, in developing Xenopus embryos. Overexpression of VEGF170 but not VEGF122 demonstrated an absence of expression of hematopoietic markers alpha-globin and GATA-1 but only in the posterior portion of the blood island. Interestingly, strong signals of endothelial markers, msr, fli-1, and tie-2, were detectable in those regions, instead of hematopoietic markers. These results suggested both that injection of VEGF170 resulted in disturbance of vasculogenesis in the posterior portion of the blood island, with excessive production of endothelial cells at the expense of blood cells, and that the anterior and posterior portions of the VBI may have distinct characteristics.
