eNOS-induced vascular barrier disruption in retinopathy by c-Src activation and tyrosine phosphorylation of VE-cadherin

eNOS-induced vascular barrier disruption in retinopathy by c-Src activation and tyrosine phosphorylation of VE-cadherin

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Background: Hypoxia and consequent production of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) promote blood vessel leakiness and edema in ocular diseases.Anti-VEGFA therapeutics may aggravate hypoxia; therefore, therapy development is needed.Methods: Oxygen-induced retinopathy was used as a model to test the role of nitric oxide (NO) here in pathological neovascularization and vessel permeability.

Suppression of NO formation was achieved chemically using L-NMMA, or genetically, in endothelial NO synthase serine to alanine (S1176A) mutant mice.Results: Suppression of NO formation resulted in reduced retinal neoangiogenesis.Remaining vascular tufts exhibited reduced vascular leakage through stabilized endothelial adherens junctions, manifested as reduced phosphorylation of vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin Y685 in a c-Src-dependent manner.

Treatment with a single dose of L-NMMA in established retinopathy restored the vascular barrier and prevented leakage.Conclusions: We conclude that NO destabilizes adheren junctions, resulting in vascular hyperpermeability, by converging with the VEGFA/VEGFR2/c-Src/VE-cadherin pathway.Funding: This study was supported by the Swedish Cancer foundation (19 aptamil allerpro 0119 Pj ), the Swedish Research Council (2020-01349), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation (KAW 2020.

0057) and a Fondation Leducq Transatlantic Network of Excellence Grant in Neurovascular Disease (17 CVD 03).KAW also supported LCW with a Wallenberg Scholar grant (2015.0275).

WCS was supported by Grants R35 HL139945, P01 HL1070205, AHA MERIT Award.DV was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB1450, B03, and CRU342, P2.