Neuropilin-1-mediated vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial growth factor-dependent endothelial cell migration

J Biol Chem. 2003 Dec 5;278(49):48848-60. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M310047200. Epub 2003 Sep 26.

Abstract

Neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) has been found to be expressed by endothelial cells and tumor cells as an isoform-specific receptor for vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Previous studies were mainly focused on the extracellular domain of NRP-1 that can bind to VEGF165 and, thus, enables NRP-1 to act as a co-receptor for VEGF165, which enhances its binding to VEGFR-2 and its bioactivity. However, the exact functional roles and related signaling mechanisms of NRP-1 in angiogenesis are not well understood. In this study we constructed a chimeric receptor, EGNP-1, by fusing the extracellular domain of epidermal growth factor receptor to the transmembrane and intracellular domains of NRP-1 and transduced it into HUVECs with a retroviral expression vector. We observed that NRP-1/EGNP-1 mediates ligand-stimulated migration of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) but not proliferation. Our results show that NRP-1 alone can mediate HUVEC migration through its intracellular domain, and its C-terminal three amino acids (SEA-COOH) are essential for the process. We demonstrate that phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor Ly294002 and the p85 dominant negative mutant can block NRP-1-mediated HUVEC migration. NRP-1-mediated migration can be significantly reduced by overexpression of the dominant negative mutant of RhoA (RhoA-19N). In addition, Gq family proteins and Gbetagamma subunits are also required for NRP-1-mediated HUVEC migration. These results show for the first time that NRP-1 can independently promote cell signaling in endothelial cells and also demonstrate the importance of last three amino acids of NRP-1 for its function.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • Cell Division
  • Cell Movement / physiology*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • DNA Primers
  • Endothelium, Vascular / cytology*
  • Humans
  • Neuropilin-1 / physiology*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / physiology*

Substances

  • DNA Primers
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A
  • Neuropilin-1