This lack of response occurred despite the similar levels of expression of VEGFR2, the main transducer of VEGF-mediated angiogenic signals (Olsson complementary DNA. microvasculature from brain biopsy of a globoid cell leukodystrophy case. Together these data demonstrate that -galactosylceramidase deficiency induces significant alterations in endothelial neovascular responses that may contribute to central nervous system and systemic damages that occur in globoid cell leukodystrophy. and (Jatana to exogenously administered pro-angiogenic factors. Normalization of twitcher endothelium was observed after murine complementary DNA transduction. Finally, downregulation of GALC activity following Silvestrol aglycone Rabbit Polyclonal to SPTBN1 lentivirus-mediated short hairpin RNA silencing causes psychosine accumulation and reduces the proliferative capacity and motogenic activity of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. In keeping with these observations, significant alterations were observed in the brain microvasculature of a human globoid cell leukodystrophy biopsy. In conclusion, our data indicate that GALC deficiency may Silvestrol aglycone induce significant alterations of the angiogenic process and CNS vascularization. In turn, these alterations may contribute to CNS and systemic damages that occur in globoid cell leukodystrophy. Materials and methods Details beyond the descriptions provided here are given in the online Supplementary material. Reagents Psychosine from bovine brain with a length of sphingoid base of C18 carbon atoms (molecular weight: 461.63, purity 98%), glucopsychosine (1–d-glucosylsphingosine) from glucocerebrosides from human Gauchers spleen and = 8) containing vehicle or 500 ng of FGF2 with or without psychosine (1.6 moles) were placed on chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane at Day 8 (Ribatti and expression (Coltrini BSI-B4 lectin, followed by 1 h incubation with streptavidin Alexa Fluor? 594. Images were taken using a Zeiss LSM 510 META confocal laser scanning microscope. Matrigel plug angiogenesis assay C57BL mice were injected subcutaneously with 400 l Matrigel? (Trevigen) containing PBS or 300 ng FGF2 in the absence or in the presence of 200 M psychosine. In a second set of experiments, wild-type, heterozygous carrier (expression in Matrigel? plugs was evaluated by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR and normalized for expression (Coltrini complementary DNA or control complementary DNA (provided by A. Biffi, San Raffele Scientific Institute, Milan). After 24 h, rings were embedded in fibrin gel and incubated with VEGF in the presence of 10% foetal calf serum. Vessel sprouts were counted under a stereomicroscope at 5 days. Histological sections of aorta rings were stained with haematoxylin and eosin or decorated with anti-CD31 antibodies. Samples were analysed for messenger RNA expression by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR and data were normalized for expression. The primers are listed in Supplementary Table 1. Small interfering RNA -galactosylceramidase knockdown in human umbilical vein endothelial cells Human umbilical vein endothelial cell silencing was carried out with a Silvestrol aglycone pool of lentiviral particles containing three short hairpin RNA target-specific constructs against human (sc-60669-V; Santa Cruz Biotechnology) whereas short hairpin RNA lentiviral particles encoding scrambled short hairpin RNA sequence (sc-108080; Santa Cruz Biotechnology) were used as controls. Cells were infected for 7 h in medium containing 8 g/ml of polybrene with 5 104 lentiviral particles. Puromycin (0.8 g/ml) was added 24 h later as a selection agent. Psychosine quantification Lipids were isolated from 4 106 human umbilical vein endothelial cells/sample as described (Galbiati = 70C80). *Random distribution of the microtubule organization centre around the nucleus, as observed in the quiescent monolayer, results in 25% of cells with microtubule organization centre located in the front quadrant. = 200C270) with actin disassembly was then calculated. Data are the mean SD.