Atg7 Regulates Brain Angiogenesis via NF-κB-Dependent IL-6 Production

作者：Zhuang, Shi-Fang; Liu, Dong-Xin; Wang, Hui-Jie; Zhang, Shu-Hong; Wei, Jia-Yi; Fang, Wen-Gang; Zhang, Ke; Cao, Liu; Zhao, Wei-Dong^*; Chen, Yu-Hua^*

来源：International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2017, 18(5): 968.

DOI：10.3390/ijms18050968

• Atg7
• angiogenesis
• brain microvascular endothelial cell
• IL-6
• NF-kappa B

The formation of brain vasculature is an essential step during central nervous system development. The molecular mechanism underlying brain angiogenesis remains incompletely understood. The role of Atg7, an autophagy-related protein, in brain angiogenesis was investigated in this study. We found that the microvessel density in mice brains with endothelial-specific knockout of Atg7 (Atg7 EKO) was significantly decreased compared to wild-type control. Consistently, in vitro angiogenesis assays showed that Atg7 knockdown impaired angiogenesis in brain microvascular endothelial cells. Further results indicated that knockdown of Atg7 reduced interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression in brain microvascular endothelial cells, which is mediated by NF-kappa B-dependent transcriptional control. Interestingly, exogenous IL-6 restored the impaired angiogenesis and reduced cell motility caused by Atg7 knockdown. These results demonstrated that Atg7 has proangiogenic activity in brain angiogenesis which is mediated by IL-6 production in a NF-kappa B-dependent manner.

• 出版日期2017-5
• 单位中国医科大学