The cytoskeletal protein ezrin regulates EC proliferation and angiogenesis via TNF-α–induced transcriptional repression of cyclin A

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Abstract

TNF-α modulates EC proliferation and thereby plays a central role in new blood vessel formation in physiologic and pathologic circumstances. TNF-α is known to downregulate cyclin A, a key cell cycle regulatory protein, but little else is known about how TNF-α modulates EC cell cycle and angiogenesis. Using primary ECs, we show that ezrin, previously considered to act primarily as a cytoskeletal protein and in cytoplasmic signaling, is a TNF-α–induced transcriptional repressor. TNF-α exposure leads to Rho kinase–mediated phosphorylation of ezrin, which translocates to the nucleus and binds to cell cycle homology region repressor elements within the cyclin A promoter. Overexpression of dominant-negative ezrin blocks TNF-α–induced modulation of ezrin function and rescues cyclin A expression and EC proliferation. In vivo, blockade of ezrin leads to enhanced transplanted EC proliferation and angiogenesis in a mouse hind limb ischemia model. These observations suggest that TNF-α regulates angiogenesis via Rho kinase induction of a transcriptional repressor function of the cytoskeletal protein ezrin and that ezrin may represent a suitable therapeutic target for processes dependent on EC proliferation.

Authors

Raj Kishore, Gangjian Qin, Corinne Luedemann, Evelyn Bord, Allison Hanley, Marcy Silver, Mary Gavin, David Goukassain, Douglas W. Losordo