VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR EXPRESSION IN RAT HEART DEVELOPMENT

LE GARCIA; CAPELARI DN; CIUFFO GM; FUENTES LB

San Luis

Congreso; Soc. Biol. Cuyo; 2009

Soc. de Biología de Cuyo

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a mitogen factor essential in vasculogenesis and angiogenesis. VEGF regulates survival, migration and differentiation of vascular endothelium, endocardium and cardiac valves. The vegf-a gene is alternatively spliced to create isoforms designated according to their number of amino acids: VEGF120, VEGF144, VEGF164, VEGF188.The aim of this study was to analyze the VEGF isoforms expression during postnatal development in the rat heart. Wistar rat at different postnatal days: PND0, PND8, PND15, PND30 and PND60 were evaluated. The four splice variants of VEGF were assayed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. VEGF188 and VEGF164 isoforms were mainly expressed in postnatal stages, especially VEGF188. We observed significant increase in the VEGF188 isoform expression with age, PND0 and PND8 respect to PND30 and PND60 (ANOVA, P<0.001). The VEGF164 isoform expression was lower than VEGF188 and no significant changes during the stages studied were detected. The VEGF144 and VEGF120 isoforms were expressed only during the first week of development (P<0.05). Our results show that several different VEGF mRNA splice variants are expressed in the rat heart. Thus, the differential expression of VEGF isoforms in cardiac tissue at early and late development may be critical in angiogenesis and vasculogenesis processes.