Lymphangiogenesis in Wound Healing
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Angiogenesis (blood vessel growth), lymphangiogenesis (lymph system growth) are all intrinsically connected with lymphedema and share many of the same genes. We have several pages on both processes.
May 23, 2008
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American
Journal of Pathology. 2000;156:1499-1504.)
© 2000 American
Society for
Investigative Pathology
From the
Molecular/Cancer Biology Laboratory,*
Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki, Helsinki; and the
Departments of
Surgery
and Plastic Surgery,
Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
Abstract
Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 (VEGFR-3) is essential for embryonic cardiovascular development, but thereafter becomes confined to the lymphatic endothelium in adult tissues. We have here studied VEGFR-3 expression in experimental wounds of pigs and chronic inflammatory wounds of humans. In healing incisional and punch biopsy wounds made in the dorsal skin of pigs, angiogenic blood vessels, identified by use of the blood vascular endothelial markers vWF and PAL-E and the basal lamina protein laminin, developed into the granulation tissue stroma from day 4 onward, being most abundant on days 5 and 6 and regressing thereafter. VEGFR-3-positive vessels were observed in the granulation tissue from day 5 onward. These vessels were distinct from the PAL-E/laminin/vWF-positive vessels and fewer in number, and they appeared to sprout from pre-existing VEGFR-3-positive lymphatic vessels at the wound edge. Unlike the blood vessels, very few VEGFR-3-positive lymphatic vessels persisted on day 9 and none on day 14. In chronic wounds such as ulcers and decubitus wounds of the lower extremity of humans, VEGFR-3 was also weakly expressed in the vascular endothelium. Our results suggest that transient lymphangiogenesis occurs in parallel with angiogenesis in healing wounds and that VEGFR-3 becomes up-regulated in blood vessel endothelium in chronic inflammatory wounds.
Introduction
Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, is essential in many physiological processes such as embryonic development, tissue and organ regeneration, the female reproductive cycle, and wound healing and inflammation.1 It has been also implicated in a wide variety of pathological processes such as tumor growth and metastasis, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis. In normal physiology, there appears to be a carefully maintained balance between blood vessel growth stimulatory and inhibitory signals, and this balance is disturbed in pathological angiogenesis.2 Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is considered to be a major angiogenic molecule, which also strongly increases vascular permeability.3 VEGF binds to its receptors, VEGFR-1 (Flt1) and VEGFR-2 (KDR/Flk1), which are important in embryonic vasculogenesis but considerably down-regulated in many adult tissues.4 Recently, additional members of the VEGF gene family have been characterized: placenta growth factor, VEGF-B, VEGF-C, VEGF-D, and VEGF-E.5 VEGF-C was discovered as the ligand for the receptor fms-like tyrosine kinase, Flt4, or VEGFR-3.6,7VEGFR-3 is essential in embryonic angiogenesis, as homozygous knockout mice lacking a functional VEGFR-3 gene die in utero from cardiovascular failure.8 During embryogenesis, VEGFR-3 is expressed in blood vascular and lymphatic endothelium, whereas in adults, it is largely restricted to the lymphatic endothelium9,10 and a few fenestrated endothelia of endocrine organs (Partanen TA, Saaristo A, Jussila L, Ora A, Miettinen M, Alitalo K, submitted). VEGFR-3 is also up-regulated in the endothelium of blood vessels in breast adenocarcinomas11 and various other tumors.12 This indicates that VEGFR-3 is present in vessels undergoing angiogenesis in tumors and is thus a potential target for anti-angiogenic therapy.
Although tumor
angiogenesis is erratic with abnormally high vessel
permeability, inflammation, vessel growth, and regression,13
angiogenic processes occur in an organized fashion in wound healing.14
In wounds, acute inflammation with increased permeability is
followed
by the deposition of a provisional fibrin and connective tissue
matrix, proliferation and migration of endothelial cells, vessel
formation, and remodeling. Most blood vessels regress as
the wound is
remodeled into scar tissue. Many factors have angiogenic
activity and
possibly participate in wound repair. These
include VEGF, fibroblast
growth factors, transforming growth factors,
tumor necrosis factor-,
and interleukin-8.15
VEGF has been
found in tissue fluid in wounds,16
and it is
up-regulated in the epidermis overlying healing
wounds,17
whereas VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2 are up-regulated in
angiogenic vessels.18,19
We studied the presence of VEGFR-3 in the vasculature of healing wounds of the domestic pig, which has previously been shown to be a valuable model of angiogenesis.20 We also examined VEGFR-3 expression in the neovasculature of ulcers and decubitus lesions of the lower extremity of humans.
Materials and Methods
Experimental Wounds
Five young adult domestic pigs were used for the wound experiments. After their skin was shaved and cleaned, the anesthetized pigs were wounded on one side of the back with 20 incisions or punch biopsies. The incisions were 3 cm long and cut through the whole epidermis and dermis. Punch biopsy wounds (diameter 6 mm) were made with a circular cut or a punch biopsy tool (Fray Products Corp., Buffalo, NY). Incisional wounds were sutured and punch biopsies were allowed to heal by secondary intention. Hemostasis was assured by applying gentle pressure when necessary. The pigs were anesthetized with i.v. ketamine hydrochloride 20 mg/kg, atropine sulfate 0.05 mg/kg, and diazepam 0.1 mg/kg. Adequate pre- and postoperative pain medication (diclofenac 75 mg i.m.) was given during the wounding and the harvesting on different days. Triplicate samples were processed for 10% neutral formalin fixation or 4% paraformaldehyde fixation or were snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen. Wounds displaying swelling or infection were excluded from the experiments. After the experiments, the animals were allowed free access to food and drink. After all harvesting procedures the pigs were given a lethal dose of pentobarbital i.v., and then disposed of according to rules set by the Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH) ethics committee. The experiments were approved by the HUCH ethics committee and by the Provincial State Office of Southern Finland.
Human Samples
Samples of granulation tissue from a human decubitus lesion, a diabetic ulcer, and a leg ulcer were obtained with the patients’ consent from four patients undergoing plastic surgery in the HUCH Department of Plastic Surgery. The skin samples were snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and processed like the other frozen samples.
Immunohistochemistry
The
cryosections and paraffin-embedded sections were processed as
previously described.21
Primary antibodies used
included monoclonal anti-VEGFR-3 (clone 9D9F9,
affinity-purified, 1.1
µg/ml), monoclonal PAL-E (a molecularly
undefined endothelial
antigen specific for blood vascular
endothelium, excepting arterioles
and arteries,22
0.15 µg/ml, Monosan, Uden, The
Netherlands), monoclonal anti-laminin (1:3000,
clone LAM-89, Sigma,
St. Louis, MO), monoclonal anti-smooth muscle -actin
(1:7000, clone 1A4, Sigma), or polyclonal anti-factor
VIII-related
antigen/von Willebrand factor (vWF; 1:300, DAKO
Immunoglobulins,
Glostrup, Denmark). Negative controls were done
by omitting the
primary antibody, by using irrelevant primary
antibodies of the same
isotype (negative control IgG1, DAKO), or by
using a 20-fold molar
excess of the extracellular portion of VEGFR-3.
In some samples the
Tyramide Signal Amplification kit (NEN Life
Sciences, Boston, MA) was
used. Results were viewed with an Olympus light
microscope and
photographed. For quantification, vessels were
counted from 4 to 7
square grids (area = 0.16 mm2, 40x
magnification) and the mean value score and SD were calculated.
Results
The specificity of the monoclonal anti-VEGFR-3 antibodies was verified by immunoprecipitation. Anti-VEGFR-3 precipitated protein bands of 195 kd and 125 kd from pig lymph nodes, corresponding to the VEGFR-3 full-length protein and to the proteolytically processed form,23 respectively (data not shown).
In a panel of
all major pig tissues VEGFR-3 localized to lymphatic vessels,
as has been previously shown in human skin samples.24
VEGFR-3 was also found in few fenestrated
endothelia in endocrine
glands, in the ductus thoracicus, and in liver
sinusoids. In the
majority of pig tissues studied, though,
VEGFR-3 localized
predominantly to a subset of vessels that were
negative for PAL-E,
laminin, smooth muscle actin, and vWF, and thus
presumably lymphatic
vessels (Figure 1) .
For instance, in the ileum, VEGFR-3 was detected
in the lacteals
(arrowheads in Figure 1
,
A–D) and in lymphatic ducts but not in the
blood vessels (arrows
in Figure 1
,
A–D). In pharyngeal mucosa and in lymphatic tissue
near the
pharyngeal tonsils, VEGFR-3 was also stained in
the lymphatic vessels
(Figure 1
, E and F) and
in the myocardium, in perivascular lymphatic
vessels (Figure 1
, G and H). In the pig dermis, the
VEGFR-3-stained lymphatic vessels
(Figure 1I)
were
PAL-E-negative (Figure 1J)
and smooth muscle actin-negative (Figure 1L)
. In the skin, the lymphatic vessels stained only very
weakly for
laminin (Figure 1K)
, as
previously described for human tissues.25
|
|
|
|
We show here that angiogenic blood vessels are negative for VEGFR-3 during normal blood vessel regeneration in wounds. In contrast, we and others have shown that VEGFR-3 is up-regulated in blood vessel endothelia in the tumor stroma.11,12 Taken together, these findings suggest that in tumors VEGFR-3 is induced by factors that are not present in wound healing angiogenesis and that VEGFR-3 expression in wound healing angiogenesis differs from that of VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2.
Earlier studies have shown at least some lymphatic vessel sprouting in experimental rabbit ear wounds.26,27 The growth of new lymphatics has also been demonstrated in autotransplants of the rat small bowel28 and of the rat hindleg.29 In the present work we analyzed wound healing in pig skin and found that VEGFR-3-positive lymphatic vessels appear in the wound concurrently with blood vessels but regress earlier. To our knowledge this is the first time lymphangiogenesis has been demonstrated by immunohistochemistry in healing wounds. The transient presence of the VEGFR-3-positive vessels may be an integral part of normal wound healing and the relative absence of lymphatic vessels in the chronic wounds studied may be one of the reasons for their impaired healing. On the other hand, the low levels of VEGFR-3 detected in the blood vascular endothelium of chronic wounds may depend on, eg, growth factor or cytokine signals similar to those that have been found to up-regulate VEGFR-3 in tumor vessels.11,12
Lymphangiogenesis may be an important yet poorly studied phenomenon in both wound healing and in tumor angiogenesis. The rapid growth and regression of lymphatic vessels shown here suggests that tumors may be able to induce their growth. However, lymphatic vessels cannot in general penetrate the tumor stroma because of increased interstitial pressure.30 Tumor lymphangiogenesis may be a process operating via similar mechanisms to the wound lymphangiogenesis demonstrated here.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Berndt Enholm for help with the experiments and Pirkko Uhlbäck, Eija Koivunen, Pipsa Ylikantola, and Tapio Tainola for excellent technical assistance. We also thank Dr. Ulpu Saarialho-Kere and Dr. Jouni Lauronen for providing samples for the study.
Footnotes
Address reprint requests to Kari Alitalo, Molecular/Cancer Biology Laboratory, Haartman Institute, P.O. Box 21, Haartmaninkatu 3, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: kari.alitalo@helsinki.fi.
Supported by the Finnish Academy, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, and the Finnish State Technology Development Centre. K. P. was supported by the Finnish Medical Foundation and the Finnish Cancer Institute.
Accepted for publication January 6, 2000.
References
http://ajp.amjpathol.org/cgi/content/full/156/5/1499?ijkey=e830a60fd7a07a4d919667c083306401be6721c1
===========================
Abstracts and Articles
Department of Clinical Nursing, Graduate Course of Nursing Science, Division of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 9200942, Japan.
We considered the relationship among exudate, wound area, angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, and reepithelialization during wound healing. Full-thickness wounds were made on the dorsum of mice. The weight of exudate absorbed into the dressing as well as the wound area was determined daily. Sections of the wounds were stained with anti-LYVE-1 and CD31 antibodies. Indian ink was injected into the wound for observing the movement of the exudate on days 3, 5, and 7 after wounding. New epithelium completely covered the wound on day 11. The quantity of exudate peaked on day 1, and then rapidly decreased until it was undetectable on day 11. Most of the Indian ink injected into the wound was retained within the wound and did not flow into the surrounding tissue. New blood vessels showed a uniform distribution in the granulation tissue on day 5. New lymphatics appeared in the granulation tissue approximately 2 days later than the blood vessels and they were distributed toward the center of the granulation tissue on day 11. Thus, reduction of exudate from the wound appears to be related to blood vessels, not lymphatics. However, increasing lymphatics may play a role in the late phase of the wound-healing process.
Wiley Online Library
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1524-475X.2009.00512.x/abstract
COMP-angiopoietin-1 promotes wound healing through enhanced angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, and blood flow in a diabetic mouse model mouse
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