Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.24.3 (collagenase)
 18,340 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The loss of retinal pericytes is one of the earliest changes in diabetic retinopathy. In order to study this phenomenon in vitro, an optimal isolation and cultivation system has to be established. Therefore, pericytes from bovine retinae were isolated enzymatically with 0.4% collagenase in phosphate-buffered saline and identical immunologically by positive staining with antibodies against smooth muscle alpha-actin. Routine cultivation of pericytes was performed by using DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum. Dependent on the in vitro age of cells, the effect of the following reagents on proliferative activity was determined: fetal calf serum, heparin, ECGF, ECGF+heparin, and glucose. Increasing serum concentrations stimulated the proliferation of pericytes, although the degree of stimulation was reduced with increasing in vitro age. Heparin inhibited the growth in a dose-dependent manner; the achieving 50% inhibition was extrapolated to be 25 micrograms/ml. ECGF increased pericyte proliferation significantly, with a maximum at 10 microliters/ml. In addition, ECGF reversed the inhibitory effect of heparin. Furthermore, all tested glucose concentrations (5.5-27.75 mmol/l) did not show any influence on growth rates of pericytes. The results demonstrate that routine cultivation of retinal pericytes is possible. Moreover, they indicate that enhanced blood glucose concentrations, as observed in diabetic patients, are not the only important factor in the loss of retinal pericytes.
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PMID:[Growth characteristics of bovine retinal pericytes in culture]. 808 55

This study was designed to determine the relative activity of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), vascular endothelial growth factor/vascular permeability factor (VEGF/VPF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor (PD-ECGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and interleukin-8 (IL-8) in regulating endothelial cell division, migration, degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM), morphogenesis, and survival. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were treated with different concentrations of the six cytokines. bFGF was the most potent mitogen followed by VEGF/VPF and PD-ECGF. VEGF/VPF and bFGF also enhanced the survival of the endothelial cells in serum-free medium. Interstitial collagenase (MMP-1) and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) were significantly upregulated only by bFGF. HGF, bFGF, and VEGF/VPF induced chemotactic migration of the endothelial cells, but only HGF (scatter factor) enhanced nondirectional motility. The organization of endothelial cells to form tubes on Matrigel was induced by bFGF and, to a lesser extent, by VEGF/VPF and IL-8. Permeability across endothelial cell monolayers was induced only by VEGF/VPF. These data demonstrate that different angiogenic molecules differentially regulate distinct steps in the process of angiogenesis, suggesting that any given molecule may be necessary but in itself insufficient for establishment of a viable vasculature.
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PMID:Regulation of distinct steps of angiogenesis by different angiogenic molecules. 949 33