Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan.
Neurosci Lett. 2011 Jun 22;497(2):116-21. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2011.04.043. Epub 2011 Apr 27.
Molecules that have crucial functions in both nervous and vascular systems have attracted keen attention recently, and the name "angioneurins" has been proposed. The most striking example of angioneurins is vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF), which was originally identified as a key regulator of angiogenesis and has only recently been found to have important functions in the nervous system. In this study, we compared VEGF expression in the vasculature in the brain with that in the aorta and the vasculature in the kidney in mice. In larger vessels containing smooth muscle cells, VEGF was expressed by smooth muscle cells covering the lining of endothelial cells, both in and outside the brain. In cerebral capillaries lacking smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells were closely covered by VEGF-expressing foot processes of astrocytes, whereas capillaries were surrounded by VEGF-expressing processes of podocytes in the renal glomeruli. We also found that cultured cerebral microvessel endothelial cells do not express VEGF, whereas cultured cortical astrocytes do express VEGF.
最近，在神经和血管系统中具有关键功能的分子引起了人们的极大关注，并提出了“血管神经肽”这一名称。血管神经肽的最显著例子是血管内皮生长因子 A（VEGF），它最初被确定为血管生成的关键调节剂，最近才发现其在神经系统中有重要功能。在这项研究中，我们比较了小鼠大脑血管、主动脉和肾脏血管中的 VEGF 表达。在含有平滑肌细胞的较大血管中，VEGF 由覆盖内皮细胞衬里的平滑肌细胞表达，无论是在大脑内还是大脑外。在缺乏平滑肌细胞的脑毛细血管中，内皮细胞被表达 VEGF 的星形胶质细胞足突紧密覆盖，而肾小球中的肾小囊毛细血管则被表达 VEGF 的足细胞突起所包围。我们还发现，培养的大脑微血管内皮细胞不表达 VEGF，而培养的皮质星形胶质细胞表达 VEGF。
