Department Animal & Human Biology, and Nanostructured Interfaces and Surfaces Centre of Excellence (NIS), University of Torino, 10123 Torino, Italy.
Curr Med Chem. 2009;16(35):4691-703. doi: 10.2174/092986709789878210.
Endothelial cells (ECs) play a pivotal role in physiological and altered tissue neovascularization. They face multiple morphological, biochemical and functional changes during the different phases of angiogenesis, under the regulation of a great number of proangiogenic and antiangiogenic signals, including soluble and insoluble factors, cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. ECs mutual contacts (and also interactions with other cell types, such as pericytes and smooth vascular muscle cells), motility, proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation are all calcium-dependent events finely tuned in space and time. Most of the angiogenic-related peptidic factors (VEGF, bFGF and others) promote an increase of cytosolic free calcium concentration in ECs, giving rise to calcium-activated intracellular cascades engaged in the different steps of the angiogenic process. A better knowledge of such signals could allow to set new diagnostic and therapeutical approaches aimed to interfere with altered neovascularization, particularly during cancer progression. This review reports the state of the art about endothelial angiogenic-related calcium signaling and discusses the most attractive perspectives for the future.
内皮细胞（ECs）在生理和组织新生血管化中起着关键作用。在血管生成的不同阶段，它们受到大量促血管生成和抗血管生成信号的调节，包括可溶性和不溶性因子、细胞-细胞和细胞-基质相互作用，经历多种形态、生化和功能变化。ECs 的相互接触（以及与其他细胞类型的相互作用，如周细胞和平滑血管肌细胞）、迁移、增殖、凋亡和分化都是钙依赖性事件，在空间和时间上都得到了精细的调节。大多数与血管生成相关的肽类因子（VEGF、bFGF 等）促进 ECs 胞浆游离钙浓度的增加，引发钙激活的细胞内级联反应，参与血管生成过程的不同步骤。更好地了解这些信号可以为设定新的诊断和治疗方法提供依据，旨在干扰异常的新生血管化，特别是在癌症进展过程中。本文综述了内皮细胞血管生成相关钙信号的最新研究进展，并讨论了未来最有吸引力的研究方向。
