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80 - Regulation of Angiogenesis and Vascular Remodeling by Endothelial Akt Signaling

from PART II - ENDOTHELIAL CELL AS INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2010

Ichiro Shiojima
Affiliation:
Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
Kenneth Walsh
Affiliation:
Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
William C. Aird
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

Since the initial identification of several classes of receptor tyrosine kinases and their ligands as crucial mediators of vascular development, considerable progress has been made toward understanding the process of angiogenesis at sites of tissue growth and/or repair (1,2). A number of clinical trials are currently evaluating angiogenic ligands for their ability to induce neovascularization in ischemic tissues (3,4), and the intracellular signaling pathways that mediate the proangiogenic effects of these growth factors are being extensively investigated. Among a number of signaling pathways activated by angiogenic growth factors, the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway is of particular interest because it regulates downstream target molecules that are potentially involved in blood vessel growth and homeostasis, and thus seems to be a major mediator that couples “inputs” with “outputs” in the endothelium.

PI3K-AKT SIGNALING AXIS: UPSTREAM ACTIVATORS AND DOWNSTREAM TARGETS

Akt originally was identified as a cellular counterpart of the oncogene derived from the murine AKT8 retrovirus; the same gene product was independently isolated as a protein kinase related to protein kinase A and C and was therefore named protein kinase B (PKB) or RAC (related to protein kinase A and C) (5–8). Mammalian genomes contain three Akt genes, Akt1/PKBα, Akt2/PKBβ, and Akt3/PKBγ, whereas Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans contain one and two Akt genes, respectively (9,10). These genes encode proteins containing a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain in the amino terminus, a central kinase domain, and a carboxy terminal regulatory domain.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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