Published online before print December 16, 2002, doi: 10.1161/01.HYP.0000053552.86367.12
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(Hypertension. 2003;41:156.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.
Scientific Contributions |
Enhancement of Ischemia-Induced Angiogenesis by eNOS Overexpression
From the Department of Medicine II and Cardiovascular Center (K.A., H.M., O.I., M.O., S.F., T. Imada, T. Iwasaka) and Radiology (H.K.), Kansai Medical University, Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan; Pharmacobioregulation Research Laboratory, Taiho Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (Y.N.), Saitama, Japan; and the Division of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine (S.K., M.Y.), Kobe, Japan.
Correspondence to Hiroaki Matsubara, MD, Department of Medicine II, Kansai Medical University, Moriguchi, Osaka 570-8507, Japan. E-mail matsubah{at}takii.kmu.ac.jp
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Abstract |
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It remains undetermined whether continuous endothelial nitric oxide (NO) overexpression exerts angiogenic action. We surgically induced hindlimb ischemia in transgenic mice overexpressing endothelial NO synthase in the endothelium (eNOS-Tg) and studied neocapillary formation, ischemia-induced vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression, cGMP accumulation, and Akt/PKB signaling. Laser Doppler imaging revealed a markedly increased recovery of blood perfusion in ischemic limbs of eNOS-Tg mice (44% increase) compared with that in wild-type mice. Angiography showed a marked increase in basal and ischemia-induced collateral vessel formation in eNOS-Tg mice. Basal capillary densities and tissue cGMP levels were increased in eNOS-Tg mice (1.8-fold and 1.6-fold versus wild-type mice, respectively). Ischemia-induced neocapillary formation and cGMP accumulation were markedly increased in eNOS-Tg mice (3.6-fold and 4.1-fold versus preischemia levels, respectively), whereas those in wild-type mice were much less (1.8-fold and 1.5-fold, respectively). Basal and time-dependent VEGF expression in ischemic muscles did not differ between eNOS-Tg and wild-type mice. Basal and VEGF-mediated Akt phosphorylation in aortas was similar between eNOS-Tg and wild-type mice. Aortic basal eNOS expression was increased 3.3-fold, and VEGF-mediated eNOS phosphorylation was markedly induced in aortas of eNOS-Tg compared with preischemia levels (4.2-fold), whereas much smaller changes were observed in wild-type mice (1.8-fold increase). Our study demonstrates that overexpression of eNOS protein causes a marked increase in neocapillary formation in response to tissue ischemia without affecting ischemia-induced VEGF expression or VEGF-mediated Akt phosphorylation.
Key Words: endothelium • ischemia • nitric oxide synthase • nitric oxide • vasculature
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Introduction |
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Nitric oxide (NO), constitutively produced by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), plays critical roles in vascular biology, including regulation of vascular tone and blood pressure.1 We generated transgenic (Tg) mice overexpressing eNOS in the vascular endothelium and reported that the mice exhibited an increase in basal NO production and basal cGMP levels in the vasculature.2
Previous investigations have provided inferential evidence that biological processes modulated by NO might extend to include angiogenesis. Brock et al3 found that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) increased cytosolic Ca2+ in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Ku et al4 documented dose-dependent relaxation of isolated canine coronary arteries in response to VEGF that could be abolished by prior endothelial disruption and/or NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA). In vitro studies demonstrated that VEGF stimulates the release of NO from the normal arterial wall5 and promotes the recovery of disturbed endothelium-dependent flow in the rabbit ischemic hindlimb.6 Direct in vitro evidence that NO may induce angiogenesis was demonstrated recently by Papapetropoulos et al.7,8 Ziche et al9,10 established the first line of evidence that NO can induce angiogenesis in vitro. Murohara et al11 clearly showed NO-mediated angiogenesis in response to tissue ischemia by using NO-deficient mice. However, we have reported that NO overexpression attenuates NO/cGMP-mediated vasoactive actions by reducing soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) activity and cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) levels.12 Although NO was shown to downregulate the expression of VEGF gene,13–16 there is a considerable body of evidence that NO upregulates VEGF gene expression in various cell types.17–19 Jozkowicz et al17 reported that NO derived from NO donors or generated by NOS within the cells upregulates the synthesis of VEGF in vascular smooth muscle cells. Esumi et al (Kimura et al18 and Chin et al19) showed that NO upregulates VEGF gene transcription through the HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor-1) binding site and HIF-1 ancillary sequence within hypoxia-response element in human glioblastoma and hepatoma cell lines.
Accordingly, we tested the hypothesis that overexpression of endothelial eNOS modulates angiogenesis in response to ischemia by using eNOS-Tg mice.
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Methods |
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Endothelial NOS
Tg mice and hindlimb ischemia heterozygous male eNOS-Tg mice and their littermate male control mice,2 at 14 to 16 weeks of age, were used. To inhibit NO synthase chronically, the mice were provided water containing 1 mg/mL L-NAME for 4 weeks. Unilateral hindlimb ischemia was induced by resecting the left femoral artery and vein. Four weeks after surgery, skeletal muscles were isolated and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen. All animal protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Immunohistochemical Analysis
Four pieces of ischemic tissues from the adductor and semimembranous muscles were obtained. Frozen sections were stained with anti–von Willebrand factor (vWF) serum (DAKO) followed by incubation with TRITC-conjugated secondary antisera.20 Five fields from 2 muscle samples of each animal were randomly selected for capillary counts. To ensure that capillary densities were not overestimated as a consequence of myocyte atrophy or underestimated because of interstitial edema, the capillary/muscle fiber ratio was determined.
Laser Doppler Perfusion Image and Angiography
We measured the ratio of the ischemic (left)/normal (right) limb blood flow using a laser Doppler perfusion image (LPDI) analyzer (Moor Instruments). After scanning blood flow twice, stored images were subjected to computer-assisted quantification of blood flow, and the average flows of ischemic and nonischemic limbs were calculated. To minimize data variables caused by ambient light and temperature, the LPDI index was expressed as the ratio of ischemic (left) to nonischemic (right) limb blood flow. Vessel density was evaluated with a microfocus x-ray television device (Hitex Co Ltd) 28 days after ischemia. Longitudinal laparotomy was performed to introduce a catheter into the abdominal aorta followed by injection of contrast medium (lipiodol). Angiography was performed for 2 seconds after the injection. We quantitatively analyzed collateral vessel numbers as previously reported.20 Briefly, numbers of vessels in the thigh area were counted by using 5-mm2 grids by 2 radiologists who were unaware of the group identity of the angiographic film. Interobserver variation was <5%. The procedure for microangiography with the use of monochromatic synchrotron radiography was previously described.21
cGMP Assay and Measurement of NOx
The assay for tissue cGMP was performed by cGMP enzyme immunoassay system (Biotrak; Amersham), as previously described.2,12 The tissues remaining after cGMP measurement were digested by use of a bicinchoninic acid protein assay kit (Pierce). Plasma nitrite and nitrate (NOx) were measured by the Griess method, as previously described.22
Northern and Western Blotting
Frozen samples from the adductor and semimembranous muscles were homogenized in TRIZOL Reagent (GIBCO BRL). Blots were hybridized with a random-primed 32P-labeled cDNA probe for VEGF20,23 and normalized by densities for 28S rRNA as an internal control. Hybridized signals were measured by scanning densitometry, and VEGF mRNA levels were arbitrarily normalized relative to the 28S rRNA levels.
VEGF-mediated phosphorylation of Akt (serine 473) and eNOS (serine 1177) was analyzed by Western blotting, with the use of phosphospecific antibodies (New England Biolabs). Abdominal aortas were excised from eNOS-Tg mice and exposed to VEGF (100 ng/mL) in serum-free DMEM for 10 minutes. Aortas were homogenized in lysis buffer. Lysates were immunoblotted with antiphospho antibodies and detected with an enhanced chemiluminescence kit (Amersham).24
Statistics
Statistical analyses were performed by 1-way ANOVA followed by pairwise contrasts using Dunnett’s test. Data (mean±SEM) were considered significant at a value of P<0.05.
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Results |
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Blood Perfusion Analysis
Progressive recovery of limb perfusion was disclosed in both eNOS-Tg and control wild-type mice after induction of limb ischemia. A greater degree of blood perfusion was observed in the ischemic limbs of eNOS-Tg mice compared with wild-type control mice (44% increase at day 21, P<0.001) (Figures 1A and 1B). Inhibition of NOS activity by L-NAME administration reduced the increased blood perfusion in eNOS-Tg mice toward the control level. Blood flow in L-NAME–treated eNOS-Tg mice or L-NAME-treated wild-type mice tended to be lower than that in wild-type mice, but this difference was not significant (Figure 1B). To test whether L-NAME treatment used in this study was sufficient to abolish endogenous NO production, we measured plasma NOx levels in eNOS-Tg, eNOS-Tg treated with L-NAME, wild-type mice, and wild-type mice treated with L-NAME (n=5, each). We found that plasma NOx levels (µmol/L) were 41±2.2, 12±1.1, 19±1.6, and 11±0.8, respectively. Thus, L-NAME treatment used here reduced NO production in eNOS-Tg mice to the level below baseline, whereas endogenous NO was still generated.
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Angiographic Analysis
In the angiography using contrast medium (lipiodol), collateral vessel numbers were markedly increased in ischemic limbs of eNOS-Tg mice (4.8±0.8-fold at day 28, P<0.001) compared with those in wild-type mice, whereas there was no significant difference in basal vessel numbers before ischemia between eNOS-Tg and wild-type mice (Figure 2). L-NAME treatment of eNOS-Tg mice completely prevented an increase in collateral vessel formation in ischemic limbs (data not shown). Angiography used here is a conventional x-ray imaging, which cannot detect capillaries less than 
200 µm in diameter. Recently, a new microangiography was developed that uses monochromatic synchrotron radiography that can record capillaries less than 200 µm in diameter.21 When the basal vessel numbers before ischemia were examined by the microangiography, vessel formation was markedly increased in eNOS-Tg mice (2.6±0.2-fold, P<0.001) compared with those in wild-type mice (Figure 2).
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Analysis of Capillary Density
Immunohistochemical staining of endothelial cells with anti-vWF antibody (Figure 3) revealed that basal capillary vessel numbers were significantly increased in eNOS-Tg mice than those in wild-type mice (1.4-fold). Twenty-eight days after the hindlimb ischemia, the vessel numbers in the wild-type mice were increased 1.8-fold compared with preischemic numbers. Neocapillary formation in eNOS-Tg mice was more markedly increased (2.7-fold relative to preischemic numbers). L-NAME treatment of eNOS-Tg mice reduced an increase in capillary formation to the control level (Figure 3).
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P<0.05 vs basal values in wild-type mice. Bars, 50 µm.
Ischemia-Induced VEGF Expression in eNOS-Tg Mice
VEGF mRNA levels were examined by using hindlimb muscles dissected at days 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, and 21. As shown in Figure 4, the basal VEGF mRNA levels were similar between eNOS-Tg and wild-type mice. VEGF mRNA levels were markedly decreased at day 1 and day 3 and reverted to the basal level at day 7 in both wild-type and eNOS-Tg mice. Thereafter, VEGF mRNA levels were gradually increased and showed a peak level approximately at day 14. There were no significant differences in time-dependent induction of VEGF mRNA levels after hindlimb ischemia between eNOS-Tg and wild-type mice.
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cGMP Levels in Ischemic Limbs
Basal cGMP levels in skeletal muscles were significantly increased in eNOS-Tg mice (1.6-fold) compared with wild-type mice. After hindlimb ischemia, tissue cGMP levels were significantly increased in eNOS-Tg mice at day 14, day 21, and day 28 (2.4-fold, 3.7-fold, and 4.1-fold, respectively, versus preischemic levels, n=6 each, P<0.001), whereas there was no significant difference at day 7 (1.3-fold). Much smaller changes were observed in the ischemic limbs of wild-type mice (1.6-fold increase at day 28 versus preischemic levels, P<0.05) (Figure 5).
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VEGF-Mediated Phosphorylation of Akt and eNOS
Abdominal aortas were dissected, and VEGF-mediated phosphorylation of Akt and eNOS was examined. The basal expression and phosphorylation levels of Akt were similar between eNOS-Tg and wild-type mice. Akt phosphorylation in the aortas from eNOS-Tg mice was induced by VEGF to an extent similar to that observed in wild-type mice (Figure 6A).
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The aortic basal eNOS expression in eNOS-Tg mice was increased 3.3-fold compared with that in wild-type mice, and the expression levels were not modified by VEGF stimulation. In contrast, the basal phospho-eNOS levels were increased in eNOS-Tg mice (2.3 fold, P<0.001) compared with that in wild-type mice. VEGF stimulation induced a further increase in phospho-eNOS levels in both eNOS-Tg and wild-type mice (2.5-fold and 1.8-fold, respectively) relative to their basal levels. However, when phospho-eNOS levels were normalized with expression levels of eNOS protein, there was no significant difference between eNOS-Tg and wild-type mice (Figure 6B), suggesting that VEGF-mediated phosphorylation of eNOS is not affected by eNOS overexpression.
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Discussion |
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Our present study demonstrated that continuous endothelial NO production augments collateral vessel formation in tissue ischemia without affecting ischemia-induced VEGF expression or VEGF-mediated phosphorylation of Akt and eNOS proteins. Akt acts downstream of VEGF to confer endothelial survival and ensure proper blood vessel development as an activator of endothelial NO production through its ability to phosphorylate eNOS.25 In the eNOS-Tg mice, Akt phosphorylates increased amounts of eNOS protein, resulting in an enhancement of collateral vessel formation. The role of NO in angiogenesis is controversial. Lau and Ma26 reported that NO inhibits migration of cultured endothelial cells. Pipili-Synetos et al27 reported that NO donors inhibit angiogenesis in the chick chorioallantoic membrane and tube formation. In contrast, Guo et al28 reported that an NO donor stimulated the proliferation of aortic endothelial cells. Ziche et al10 suggested that NO may play a role in angiogenesis elicited by VEGF but not basic fibroblast growth factor.
Murohara et al11 demonstrated that angiogenesis developing in response to limb ischemia was severely reduced in mice lacking eNOS gene. In the eNOS-/- mice, ischemia-induced VEGF expression was normal and exogenous administration of VEGF did not improve the impaired angiogenesis, suggesting the impairment downstream of VEGF signaling. We established mice overexpressing eNOS in the vascular endothelium exhibited a NO/cGMP-dependent decrease in blood pressure,2 whereas we also found that eNOS overexpression reduced the sGC activity and PKG expression leading to reduction of endothelium-dependent or endothelium-independent activities.12 This raised the possibility that continuous activation of endogenous NO may impair angiogenesis. Our present study thus extended the work of Murohara et al11 to establish that endogenous NO production enhances angiogenesis in hindlimb ischemia affecting neither ischemia-induced VEGF expression nor VEGF-mediated Akt-eNOS signaling.
Previous studies indicated that NO may function as an endogenous negative regulator of VEGF expression in the vascular wall,13 whereas there is a considerable body of evidence that NO upregulates VEGF gene expression in various cell types, including vascular smooth muscle cells.17–19 Although we considered the possibility that a similar paradigm might lead to affect expression of VEGF in ischemic skeletal muscle of eNOS-Tg mice, we were unable to detect any such difference between control and eNOS-Tg mice, consistent with the finding observed in eNOS-/- mice.11 The reason for this discrepancy remains enigmatic, but it must be recognized that the two paradigms differ in several important respects. The arterial wall contains smooth muscle, which is (normally) in direct contact with a continuous layer of endothelial cells, and the regulatory activity of NO was demonstrated after shear stress–induced or balloon-induced stretch of the artery wall. In contrast, the ischemic hindlimb consisted of skeletal muscle, lacking such an adjacent organized endothelial monolayer, and the injury (arterial excision) in this case results in profound ischemia, including necrosis, with a corresponding inflammatory cell infiltrate. Precisely how these salient differences may directly contribute to modulated NO-VEGF interaction remains to be elucidated.
We showed that VEGF mRNA levels were decreased immediately after limb ischemia and then gradually increased. At present, we cannot explain why VEGF mRNA levels were temporally decreased after ischemia. To prepare ischemic limbs, we ligated the femoral artery and extensively stripped the branch arteries. Given a marked decrease in VEGF mRNA levels at day 1 and day 3, this operation may suddenly cause severe necrosis of skeletal muscle cells rather than tissue ischemia. A decrease in VEGF expression in the early phase after hindlimb ischemia was also observed by Li et al.29 Necrotic skeletal muscle cells lose the ability of VEGF synthesis. Blood flow was gradually restored by the expansion of preexisting collaterals (arteriogenesis), and only surviving skeletal muscle cells can synthesize VEGF in response to hypoxia. Thus, it may be possible to consider that restoration of blood flow in early phase after ligation of femoral artery is due to expansion of preexisting collaterals (arteriogenesis), which produces the discrepancy between VEGF expression and restoration of blood flow.
Hypotension in eNOS-Tg mice may contribute to the enhanced angiogenic process. We previously reported that arterial pressure in eNOS-Tg mice (82±2 mm Hg) was reversed by L-NAME treatment (102±3 mm Hg) toward the normal level (101±2 mm Hg).2 Thus, as inhibition of NO synthesis by L-NAME normalized both hypotension and enhanced angiogenic process in eNOS-Tg mice, we could not define the influence of blood pressure itself to the angiogenic process. Native angiogenic response to ischemia was reported to be impaired in spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR).30,31 In contrast, Murohara et al11 reported that an elevation in blood pressure in eNOS-/- mice did not affect the native vessel numbers in hindlimb and that blood pressure per se probably does not affect angiogenesis in vivo. Coronary capillary angiogenesis was reported to develop uninhibitedly in SHR32 or hypertension induced by constriction of the left renal artery.33 Further studies will be needed to define the effect of blood pressure on the angiogenic process in response to tissue ischemia.
Perspectives
This study demonstrated that continuous endothelial NO production augments collateral vessel formation in tissue ischemia without affecting ischemia-induced VEGF expression or VEGF-mediated Akt activation. In the eNOS-Tg mice, basal eNOS expression is increased in vascular endothelium and Akt phosphorylates the increased amounts of basal eNOS protein, resulting in an enhancement of collateral vessel formation. The role of NO was reported in ischemia-induced coronary collateral formation by Matsunaga et al.34 Thus, the findings observed in two gene-engineered models of hindlimb ischemia that used eNOS-Tg (this study) and eNOS-/-11 mice established the pivotal role of endothelial NO production in the angiogenic process, suggesting that supplemental treatment leading to production of endogenous NO is effective as a compensatory strategy for angiogenic gene or cell therapies.35
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Acknowledgments |
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This study was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture and from the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare, Japan.
Received June 10, 2002; first decision July 1, 2002; accepted October 25, 2002.
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T. Namba, H. Koike, K. Murakami, M. Aoki, H. Makino, N. Hashiya, T. Ogihara, Y. Kaneda, M. Kohno, and R. Morishita Angiogenesis Induced by Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene Through Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression in a Rat Hindlimb Ischemia Model Circulation, November 4, 2003; 108(18): 2250 - 2257. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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