Hypoxia and extracellular matrix remodeling

International audience; Hypoxia regulates composition of both the vascular basement membrane (BM) and the extracellular matrix (ECM) by modulating deposition, cross-linking, posttranslational modifications, and rearrangement events but also degradation. Hypoxia-driven remodeling of the ECM includes highly temporally and spatially coordinated processes that eventually affect angiogenesis leading to blood vessel formation from existing blood vessels. Hypoxia thereby affects the mechanical properties of the vascular milieu as well as matricellular proteins expression and function and availability of angiogenesis-regulating growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). ECM composition and stiffness may be required for optimal VEGFR2 expression and vascular development in vitro and in vivo (Mammoto et al. Nature 2009), but how it might control signaling pathways such as VEGFR2 signaling is not fully appreciated yet. Thus, vascular BM and ECM composition affects vascular microenvironment architecture and interaction with angiogenic growth factors but also exerts mechanical forces controlled by physical interactions between vascular cells and the ECM that cooperate in regulating angiogenesis.