VEGF‐A regulated by progesterone governs uterine angiogenesis and vascular remodelling during pregnancy

M Kim, HJ Park, JW Seol, JY Jang, YS Cho… - EMBO molecular …, 2013 - embopress.org
M Kim, HJ Park, JW Seol, JY Jang, YS Cho, KR Kim, Y Choi, JP Lydon, FJ DeMayo…
EMBO molecular medicine, 2013embopress.org
The features and regulation of uterine angiogenesis and vascular remodelling during
pregnancy are poorly defined. Here we show that dynamic and variable decidual
angiogenesis (sprouting, intussusception and networking), and active vigorous vascular
remodelling such as enlargement and elongation of 'vascular sinus folding'(VSF) and mural
cell drop‐out occur distinctly in a spatiotemporal manner in the rapidly growing mouse
uterus during early pregnancy—just after implantation but before placentation. Decidual …
The features and regulation of uterine angiogenesis and vascular remodelling during pregnancy are poorly defined. Here we show that dynamic and variable decidual angiogenesis (sprouting, intussusception and networking), and active vigorous vascular remodelling such as enlargement and elongation of ‘vascular sinus folding’ (VSF) and mural cell drop‐out occur distinctly in a spatiotemporal manner in the rapidly growing mouse uterus during early pregnancy — just after implantation but before placentation. Decidual angiogenesis is mainly regulated through VEGF‐A secreted from the progesterone receptor (PR)‐expressing decidual stromal cells which are largely distributed in the anti‐mesometrial region (AMR). In comparison, P4‐PR‐regulated VEGF‐A‐VEGFR2 signalling, ligand‐independent VEGFR3 signalling and uterine natural killer (uNK) cells positively and coordinately regulate enlargement and elongation of VSF. During the postpartum period, Tie2 signalling could be involved in vascular maturation at the endometrium in a ligand‐independent manner, with marked reduction of VEGF‐A, VEGFR2 and PR expressions. Overall, we show that two key vascular growth factor receptors — VEGFR2 and Tie2 — strikingly but differentially regulate decidual angiogenesis and vascular remodelling in rapidly growing and regressing uteri in an organotypic manner.
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