New Findings
1. What is the central question of this study?
Dose VEGF expressed by both endothelial cells and skeletal myofibers maintain the number of skeletal muscle capillaries and regulate endurance exercise.
2. What is the main finding and its importance?
VEGF expressed by both endothelial cells and skeletal myofibers is not essential for maintaining capillary number but does contribute to exercise performance.
Abstract
Many chronic diseases lead to exercise intolerance, with loss of skeletal muscle capillaries. While many muscle cell types (myofibers, satellite cells, endothelial cells, macrophages and fibroblasts) express VEGF, most muscle VEGF is stored in myofibers vesicles which can release VEGF to signal VEGF receptor‐expressing cells. VEGF gene ablation in myofibers or endothelial cells alone does not cause capillary regression.
We hypothesized that simultaneously deleting endothelial cell (EC) and skeletal myofiber (Skm) VEGF would cause capillary regression and impair exercise performance. This was tested in adult mice by simultaneous conditional deletion of the VEGF gene (Skm/EC‐VEGF‐/‐ mice) through the use of VEGFLoxP, HSA‐Cre‐ERT2 and PDGFb‐iCre‐ERT2 transgenes. These double‐deletion mice were compared to three control groups – WT, EC VEGF deletion alone and myofiber VEGF deletion alone.
Three weeks after initiating gene deletion, Skm/EC‐VEGF‐/‐ mice, but not SkmVEGF‐/‐ or EC‐VEGF‐/‐ mice, reached exhaustion 40 minutes sooner than WT mice in treadmill tests (p = 0.002). WT, SkmVEGF‐/‐, and EC‐VEGF‐/‐, but not Skm/EC‐VEGF‐/‐ mice, gained weight over the three weeks. Capillary density, fiber area and capillary:fiber ratio in soleus, plantaris, gastrocnemius and cardiac papillary muscle were similar across the groups. Phosphofructokinase and pyruvate dehydrogenase activities increased only in Skm/EC‐VEGF‐/‐ mice.
These data suggest that deletion of VEGF signaling simultaneously in endothelial cells and myofibers, while reducing treadmill endurance and despite compensatory augmentation of glycolysis, is not required for muscle capillary maintenance. Reduced endurance remains unexplained, but may possibly be related to a role for VEGF in controlling perfusion of contracting muscle.
