title: Akt signaling and its role in postnatal neovascularization.
abstract: Postnatal neovascularization has been known to be involved in not only angiogenesis but also vasculogenesis. Several lines of evidence suggest a link between neovascularization and Akt, a family member of serine/threonine protein kinases. Akt phosphorylates endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) and thereby enhances endothelial NO synthesis and influences postnatal vessel growth. Akt signaling is activated by a variety of stimuli in endothelial cells and endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). Activation of the Akt kinase orchestrates a number of signaling pathways potentially involved in angiogenesis. Dominant negative Akt overexpression leads to functional blocking of EPC bioactivity. Because neovascularization is implicated in the pathophysiology of a number of diseases and is becoming an important therapeutic strategy for those diseases, further dissection of the Akt pathway and elucidation of the downstream effector molecules will lead to a better understanding of postnatal neovascularization and may provide avenues for the development of novel therapeutic interventions. In this review, molecular mechanisms of Akt signal pathway will be discussed with special emphasis on its role in neovascularization.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology and National Research Center for Stem Cell Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union of Medical College, Tianjin 30020, China.
authors.forename: F X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Z C
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000502:physiology; D052250:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000502:physiology; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000502:physiology*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D020033:Protein Isoforms; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; C496314:NOS3 protein, human; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D052250:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III; C494918:AKT1 protein, human; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt