| Summary: | Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting vessels, which involves endothelial cell migration, differentiation and proliferation. Angiogenesis is mediated by a variety of cell surface receptors including growth factor receptors, cell adhesion molecules and others with pro- and anti-angiogenic functions. The primary goal of this study was to determine the expression of KIAA1024 in endothelial cells and elucidate its functional importance in endothelial cells. Our study, for the first time, demonstrated that KIAA1024 is expressed in human endothelial and various cancer cell lines. We further demonstrated that ectopic expression of KIAA1024 in porcine aortic endothelial (PAE) cells inhibits cell migration in both Boyden chamber and cell scratch assays. Additionally, overexpression of KIAA1024 in PAE cells significantly altered actin stress fiber formation and reduced capillary tube formation. Interestingly, unlike its inhibitory effect on capillary tube formation, overexpression of KIAA1024 in PAE cells increased cell migration, cell survival and inhibited phosphorylation of pro-apoptosis p38MAPK. Taken together, the data presented in this study identifies KIAA1024 as a novel cell surface receptor expressed in endothelial cells and regulates angiogenic properties of endothelial cells.
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