The vascular endothelial growth factor VEGF165 induces perlecan synthesis via VEGF receptor-2 in cultured human brain microvascular endothelial cells.

A member of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family, VEGF165, regulates vascular endothelial cell functions in autocrine and paracrine fashions in microvessels. Proteoglycans are highly glycosylated poly-anionic macromolecules that influence cellular behaviors such as proliferation and migration by interacting with cytokines/growth factors. In the present study, we investigated the regulation of proteoglycan synthesis by VEGF165 in cultured human brain microvascular endothelial cells.

Differential regulation of biglycan and decorin synthesis by connective tissue growth factor in cultured vascular endothelial cells.

It is possible that connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) serves as either an independent regulator or a downstream effector of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) on the proteoglycan synthesis in vascular endothelial cells. Since TGF-beta regulates endothelial proteoglycan synthesis in a cell density-dependent manner, dense and sparse cultures of bovine aortic endothelial cells were metabolically labeled with [(35)S]sulfate or (35)S-labeled amino acids in the presence of CTGF, and the labeled proteoglycans were characterized by biochemical techniques. The results indicate that CTGF suppresses the synthesis of biglycan but newly induced that of decorin in the cells when the cell density is low; in addition, no change was observed in the hydrodynamic size and the glycosaminoglycan chain length of these two small chondroitin/dermatan sulfate proteoglycans.