Tohoku university school of medicine

Cancers and cardio-cerebral vascular diseases increase their incidence according to aging, and are major causes of death in industrialized countries including Japan. Vascular endothelial cells, which constitute blood vessels, have the ability to form neo-vessels (angiogenesis). Cancers use this ability to make their own neo-vessels (tumor angiogenesis), and gain oxygen and nutrients for their growth and metastasis. Alternatively, as vascular endothelial cells localize as an interface against blood stream, they are always exposed to various mechanical or chemical stresses. Thus, accumulating damages to vascular endothelium during aging leads to atherosclerosis and/or diabetic vascular diseases, the main causes of cardio-cerebral vascular diseases. Our department focuses on the biology of endothelial cells relating to angiogenesis as well as stress tolerance (anti-aging).

1)Isolation of vasohibin-2 as a sole homologue of VEGF-inducible endothelium-derived angiogenesis inhibitor vasohibin: a comparative study on their expressions. Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol. 26: 1051-1057 2006

2)Vasohibin as an endothelium-derived negative feedback regulator of angiogenesis. J. Clin. Invest. 114: 898-907 2004

3)Puromycin insensitive leucyl-specific aminopeptidase (PILSAP) binds and catalyses PDK1, allowing VEGF-stimulated activation of S6K for endothelial cell proliferation and angiogenesis. Blood 104:2345-2352 2004

4)A mouse orthologue of puromycin insensitive leucyl-specific aminopeptidase (PILSAP) is expressed in endothelial cells and plays an important role in angiogenesis. Blood 99: 3241-3249 2002

angiogenesis, endothelial cell