Increased severity of cerebral ischemic injury in vascular endothelial growth factor-B-deficient mice

Yunjuan Sun, Kunlin Jin, Jocelyn T. Childs, Lin Xie, Xiao Ou Mao, David A. Greenberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

69 Scopus citations

Abstract

Vascular endothelial growth factor-B (VegfB) is an angiogenic protein related to VegfA, although it acts on a different set of tyrosine kinase receptors. Like VegfA, VegfB is expressed in the brain and is induced at sites of brain injury. VegfA has neuroprotective and angiogenic effects, but VegfA-knockout mice die in utero, so the effect of endogenous VegfA signaling in neuropathologic states, such as cerebral ischemia, cannot be tested directly. In contrast, VegfB-knockout mice survive to adulthood with little abnormality in the absence of pathologic stresses. To determine if VegfB regulates the severity of cerebral ischemia, the middle cerebral artery was occluded in VegfB-knockout, heterozygous, and wild-type mice, and the volume of the resulting cerebral infarcts and associated impairment of neurologic function were measured. Infarct volume was increased by approximately 40% and neurologic impairment was more severe in VegfB-knockout mice, implying that endogenous VegfB acts to protect the brain from ischemic injury. VegfB also protected cultured cerebral cortical neurons from hypoxic injury, suggesting that its protective action is mediated at least in part through a direct effect on neurons.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1146-1152
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism
Volume24
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2004

Keywords

  • Hypoxia
  • Ischemia
  • Stroke
  • Vascular endothelial growth factor-B

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