Researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK have discovered a previously unknown signalling pathway that controls angiogenesis, the formation and remodelling of blood vessels.
They have identified a signalling protein called Arap3 and shown it to be vital for establishing a circulatory system in developing embryos. Mice lacking Arap3 die before birth because of a failure to grow blood vessels during embryonic development, a process orchestrated by a family of proteins called phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) which regulate Arap3.
Arap3, in turn regulates two signalling proteins called RhoA and Arf6, which are important for cell motility, a crucial aspect of angiogenesis. The researchers say Arap3’s unique binding specificity may make it a suitable target for anti-angiogenic therapies.
References
PI3K signalling through the dual GTPase–activating protein ARAP3 is essential for developmental angiogenesisGambardella, L. et al.
Sci. Signal. 3, ra76 (2010).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scisignal.2001026
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