HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 90/3/403    most recent expphysiol.2004.029769v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wagatsuma, A. Articles by Ogita, F. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wagatsuma, A. Articles by Ogita, F. Related Collections Muscle

¹ Department of Physiological Sciences, National Institute of Fitness and Sports, Shiromizu-cho 1, Kanoya, Kagoshima 891-2393, Japan

Capillary supply of skeletal muscle decreases during denervation. To gain insight into the regulation of this process, we investigated capillary supply and gene expression of angiogenesis-related factors in mouse gastrocnemius muscle following denervation for 4 months. Frozen transverse sections were stained for alkaline phosphatase to detect endogenous enzyme in the capillary endothelium. The mRNA for angiogenesis-related factors, including hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), kinase insert domain-containing receptor/fetal liver kinase-1 (KDR/Flk-1), fms-like tyrosine kinase (Flt-1), angiopoietin-1 and tyrosine kinase with Ig and epidermal growth factor(EGF) homology domain 2 (Tie-2), was analysed using a semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The fibre cross-sectional area after denervation was about 20% of the control value, and the capillary to fibre ratio was significantly lower in denervated than in control muscles. The number of capillaries around each fibre also decreased to about 40% of the control value. These observations suggest that muscle capillarity decreases in response to chronic denervation. RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of VEGF mRNA was lower in denervated than in control muscles, while the expression of HIF-1 mRNA remained unchanged. The expression levels of the KDR/Flk-1 and Flt-1 genes were decreased in the denervated muscle. The expression levels of angiopoietin-1 but not Tie-2 genes were decreased in the denervated muscle. These findings indicate that reduction in the expression of mRNAs in the VEGF/KDR/Flk-1 and Flt-1 as well as angiopoietin-1/Tie-2 signal pathways might be one of the reasons for the capillary regression during chronic denervation.

(Received 6 January 2005; accepted after revision 28 January 2005; first published online 11 February 2005)
Corresponding author A. Wagatsuma: Department of Physiological Sciences, National Institute of Fitness and Sports, Shiromizu-cho 1, Kanoya, Kagoshima 891-2393, Japan. Email: waga{at}nifs-k.ac.jp

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. P. Gavin, R. S. Ruster, J. A. Carrithers, K. A. Zwetsloot, R. M. Kraus, C. A. Evans, D. J. Knapp, J. L. Drew, J. S. McCartney, J. P. Garry, et al. No difference in the skeletal muscle angiogenic response to aerobic exercise training between young and aged men J. Physiol., November 15, 2007; 585(1): 231 - 239. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]