Tumor growth depends on nutrients and oxygen supplied by the vasculature through angiogenesis. Here, we show that the chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter-transcription factor II (COUP-TFII), a member of the nuclear receptor family, is a major angiogenesis regulator within the tumor microenvironment. Conditional ablation of COUP-TFII in adults severely compromised neoangiogenesis and suppressed ...

Hindlimb unweighting (HU) leads to capillary regression in skeletal muscle. However, the molecular mechanism(s) remains to be elucidated. To gain insight into the regulation of this process, we investigated gene expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha)vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), angiopoietin, and their receptors in the atrophied muscle induced by HU. The hindlim...

Inflammation is a basic pathological mechanism that underlies many diseases. An important component of the inflammatory response is the passage of plasma components and leukocytes from the blood vessel into the tissues. The endothelial monolayer lining blood vessels reacts to stimuli such as thrombin or vascular endothelial growth factor by changes in cell-cell junctions, an increase in permeab...

The angiopoietins and Tie receptors are involved in blood vessel formation. The role of the angiopoietin/Tie receptor system in myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion is not well known. To investigate the participation of angiopoietins and Tie receptors in myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion, adult Wistar rats were studied in which the left coronary artery was ligated for 30 min, followed by reperfusion...

Angiopoietins and Tie2 are angiogenic-specific ligand and receptor complex that have been shown to play a critical role in tumor angiogenesis. Angiopoietin-2 (Ang2) is one of four ligands for receptor Tie2 and it is the naturally occurring antagonist to Tie2, inhibiting the action of Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1). Over the last decade, significant research has focused on elucidating the role of Ang2 in...