TY - JOUR
T1 - Vascular endothelial growth factor-A is a survival factor for nucleus pulposus cells in the intervertebral disc
AU - Fujita, Nobuyuki
AU - Imai, Jun ichi
AU - Suzuki, Toru
AU - Yamada, Masayuki
AU - Ninomiya, Ken
AU - Miyamoto, Kana
AU - Iwasaki, Ryotaro
AU - Morioka, Hideo
AU - Matsumoto, Morio
AU - Chiba, Kazuhiro
AU - Watanabe, Shinya
AU - Suda, Toshio
AU - Toyama, Yoshiaki
AU - Miyamoto, Takeshi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Y. Sato and A. Kumakubo for technical support. T. Miyamoto was supported by Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology, and the Takeda Science Foundation, Japan. T. Suda was supported by a grant-in-aid from Specially Promoted Research of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan. N. Fujita was supported by a grant-in-aid from the 21st century COE Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, to Keio University.
PY - 2008/7/25
Y1 - 2008/7/25
N2 - The intervertebral disc (IVD) is composed of two avascular tissue types, the nucleus pulposus (NP) and the annulus fibrosus (AF). IVDs is the largest avascular tissue in the human body, however, how these tissues are maintained without a blood supply is poorly understood. Here we show that vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) is highly expressed in NP and that VEGF-A plays a role in NP survival. High VEGF-A expression in NP was detected by microarray analysis, and NP was positive for the hypoxic probe pimonidazole and hypoxia-responsive genes. VEGF-A expression in NP was promoted by hypoxic conditions in vitro. NP cells also expressed the membrane-bound VEGF receptor-1 (VEGFR-1), and the number of apoptotic cells in cultured cell model of NP increased following treatment with VEGFR-1-Fc, which traps VEGF-A in NP. These results indicate that NP is a hypoxic tissue, and that VEGF-A functions in NP survival in an autocrine/paracrine manner.
AB - The intervertebral disc (IVD) is composed of two avascular tissue types, the nucleus pulposus (NP) and the annulus fibrosus (AF). IVDs is the largest avascular tissue in the human body, however, how these tissues are maintained without a blood supply is poorly understood. Here we show that vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) is highly expressed in NP and that VEGF-A plays a role in NP survival. High VEGF-A expression in NP was detected by microarray analysis, and NP was positive for the hypoxic probe pimonidazole and hypoxia-responsive genes. VEGF-A expression in NP was promoted by hypoxic conditions in vitro. NP cells also expressed the membrane-bound VEGF receptor-1 (VEGFR-1), and the number of apoptotic cells in cultured cell model of NP increased following treatment with VEGFR-1-Fc, which traps VEGF-A in NP. These results indicate that NP is a hypoxic tissue, and that VEGF-A functions in NP survival in an autocrine/paracrine manner.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/44649175659
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/44649175659#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1016/j.bbrc.2008.05.044
DO - 10.1016/j.bbrc.2008.05.044
M3 - Article
C2 - 18492486
AN - SCOPUS:44649175659
SN - 0006-291X
VL - 372
SP - 367
EP - 372
JO - Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
JF - Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
IS - 2
ER -