The symptoms of coronary artery disease and peripheral arterial disease are caused by decreased blood flow, which is known as ischemia, to the heart muscles and/or other tissues, respectively. This in turn triggers local expansion of the lumen of blood vessels (arteriogenesis) and the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis), which together allow blood flow to the damaged tissue to be restored. Although previous studies have hinted at a role for a protein known as Bmx in angiogenesis, its function in vivo had remained unclear.

Now, in a study appearing online on August 24 in advance of publication in the September print issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Wang Min and colleagues from Yale University have shown that Bmx has an important role in the arteriogenesis and angiogenesis induced by ischemic injury in the hind limbs of mice. Bmx-deficient mice showed impaired restoration of the blood flow to the limbs after ischemic injury, whereas mice expressing a constitutively active form of Bmx only in endothelial cells showed enhanced restoration of the blood flow to the limbs. This study highlights the importance of Bmx for arteriogenesis and angiogenesis after ischemia and suggests that Bmx might be a good target for the treatment of diseases caused by ischemia, such as coronary heart disease and peripheral arterial disease.

TITLE: Critical function of Bmx/Etk in ischemia-mediated arteriogenesis and angiogenesis

AUTHOR CONTACT: Wang Min Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. E-mail: wang.minyale

View the PDF of this article at: https://the-jci/article.php?id=28123



JCI table of contents: August 24, 2006

Contact: Karen Honey
Journal of Clinical Investigation