Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Its Receptor KDR/flk-1 Play Important Roles in Hematopoiesis.
It is widely accepted that hematopoietic and endothelial cell lineages are initiated from the same precursor cells (named as hemangioblast), although hemangioblast has not been proved. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor KDR/flk-1 is a prime regulator of endothelial cell proliferation, angiogenesis, vasculogenesis and vascular permeability. It is speculated that VEGF and its receptor KDR/flk-1 may also play an important role in embryonic and postnatal hematopoiesis. But the exact role and mechanism are not well known. Some latest developed cellular and molecular techniques can be used to prove the existence of hemangioblast and to investigate its biologic feature and the effect of VEGF and receptor KDR/flk-1 on its biologic feature.
Hong
Deng-Li
DL
Department of Hematology, Tongji Hospital of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China; Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, Torino Medical School, University of Torino, Torino Italy 10060.
Zhang
Yao-Zhen
YZ
Piacibello
Wand
W
Aglietta
Massimo
M