Angiogenesis is thought to depend on a precise balance of positive and negative regulation. Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) is an angiogenic factor that signals through the endothelial cell-specific Tie2 receptor tyrosine kinase. Like vascular endothelial growth factor, Ang1 is essential for normal vascular development in the mouse. An Ang1 relative, termed angiopoietin-2 (Ang2), was identified by homology screening and shown to be a naturally occurring antagonist for Ang1 and Tie2. Transgenic overexpression of Ang2 disrupts blood vessel formation in the mouse embryo. In adult mice and humans, Ang2 is expressed only at sites of vascular remodeling. Natural antagonists for vertebrate receptor tyrosine kinases are atypical; thus, the discovery of a negative regulator acting on Tie2 emphasizes the need for exquisite regulation of this angiogenic receptor system.

Skeletal muscle adapts to decreases in activity and load by undergoing atrophy. To identify candidate molecular mediators of muscle atrophy, we performed transcript profiling. Although many genes were up-regulated in a single rat model of atrophy, only a small subset was universal in all atrophy models. Two of these genes encode ubiquitin ligases: Muscle RING Finger 1 (MuRF1), and a gene we designate Muscle Atrophy F-box (MAFbx), the latter being a member of the SCF family of E3 ubiquitin ligases. Overexpression of MAFbx in myotubes produced atrophy, whereas mice deficient in either MAFbx or MuRF1 were found to be resistant to atrophy. These proteins are potential drug targets for the treatment of muscle atrophy.

A recent explosion in newly discovered vascular growth factors has coincided with exploitation of powerful new genetic approaches for studying vascular development. An emerging rule is that all of these factors must be used in perfect harmony to form functional vessels. These new findings also demand re-evaluation of therapeutic efforts aimed at regulating blood vessel growth in ischaemia, cancer and other pathological settings.

Skeletal muscles adapt to changes in their workload by regulating fibre size by unknown mechanisms. The roles of two signalling pathways implicated in muscle hypertrophy on the basis of findings in vitro, Akt/mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) and calcineurin/NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells), were investigated in several models of skeletal muscle hypertrophy and atrophy in vivo. The Akt/mTOR pathway was upregulated during hypertrophy and downregulated during muscle atrophy. Furthermore, rapamycin, a selective blocker of mTOR, blocked hypertrophy in all models tested, without causing atrophy in control muscles. In contrast, the calcineurin pathway was not activated during hypertrophy in vivo, and inhibitors of calcineurin, cyclosporin A and FK506 did not blunt hypertrophy. Finally, genetic activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway was sufficient to cause hypertrophy and prevent atrophy in vivo, whereas genetic blockade of this pathway blocked hypertrophy in vivo. We conclude that the activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway and its downstream targets, p70S6K and PHAS-1/4E-BP1, is requisitely involved in regulating skeletal muscle fibre size, and that activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway can oppose muscle atrophy induced by disuse.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which acts via members of a family of endothelial-specific receptor tyrosine kinases, is the only factor that has been shown definitively to play a role in the formation of the embryonic vasculature. Only one other family of receptor tyrosine kinases, comprising TIE1 and TIE2, is largely endothelial cell specific. We have recently cloned a ligand for TIE2, termed Angiopoietin-1. Here we show that mice engineered to lack Angiopoietin-1 display angiogenic deficits reminiscent of those previously seen in mice lacking TIE2, demonstrating that Angiopoietin-1 is a primary physiologic ligand for TIE2 and that it has critical in vivo angiogenic actions that are distinct from VEGF and that are not reflected in the classic in vitro assays used to characterize VEGF. Angiopoietin-1 seems to play a crucial role in mediating reciprocal interactions between the endothelium and surrounding matrix and mesenchyme.