Role of Insulin-like Growth Factors in Endothelium Differentiation
ECs derived from stem cells are the beginning of vasculogenesis. Vasculogenesis is the new production of a vascular network from mesodermal progenitor cells. This can be distinguished from angiogenesis, which is the creation of new capillaries from vessels that already exist through the process of splitting or sprouting. This can occur "in vitro" in embryoid bodies (EB) derived from embryonic stem cells; this process in EB is similar to "in vivo" vasculogenesis. Important signaling factors for vasculogenesis are TGF-β, BMP4, and VEGF, all of which promote pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into mesoderm, endothelial progenitor cells, and then into mature endothelium.
It is well established that insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling is important for cell responses such as mitogenesis, cell growth, proliferation, angiogenesis, and differentiation. IGF1 and IGF2 increase the production of ECs in EB. A method that IGF employs to increase vasculogenesis is upregulation of VEGF. Not only is VEGF critical for mesoderm cells to become an EC, but also for EPCs to differentiate into mature endothelium. Understanding this process can lead to further research in vascular regeneration.
Read more about this topic: Endothelial Stem Cell
Famous quotes containing the words role of, role, growth and/or factors:
“In today’s world parents find themselves at the mercy of a society which imposes pressures and priorities that allow neither time nor place for meaningful activities and relations between children and adults, which downgrade the role of parents and the functions of parenthood, and which prevent the parent from doing things he wants to do as a guide, friend, and companion to his children.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)
“A few [women] warrant our attention not because they have the answer but because they have rejected the mentality that insists there must be one answer. What makes them role models is not how much or how little they work, how many or how few hats they wear, but rather how well they understand, and accept, that for all rewards there will be commensurate sacrifice; for all gains, some loss; for any pleasure, some pain.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“The reality is that zero defects in products plus zero pollution plus zero risk on the job is equivalent to maximum growth of government plus zero economic growth plus runaway inflation.”
—Dixie Lee Ray (b. 1924)
“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents’ verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don’t speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)