Regulation of angiogenesis in skeletal muscle

在我的实验室进行的这项研究的主要目标是发现控制骨骼肌血管形成的新策略。新血管的生长是一种正常的健康反应，使我们的肌肉能够适当地适应不同的能量需求，包括饮食脂肪的储存和使用。在短期内，过量的饮食脂肪会促进骨骼肌的有益适应，帮助储存和使用多余的脂肪。这种适应通常包括新血管的生长，以帮助将能量输送到肌肉细胞。然而，在健康个体中协调这种反应的信号尚不清楚。我的研究小组将专注于确定短期脂肪过剩与骨骼肌血管生长调控之间的关系。其次，我们将评估位于血管和骨骼肌细胞之间的细胞，即周细胞，作为对过量饮食脂肪的适应性反应的重要协调者的潜在作用。我们将研究瘦素蛋白作为一种重要的通讯信号的功能，该信号由周细胞产生和释放，以协调肌肉细胞和血管的适应。这个项目的优势和独特性是我们将采用的方法(包括小鼠和人类肌肉，以及细胞培养模型)的组合，这将使我们能够发现脂肪过量调节血管生长的独特证据，以及周细胞在协调这一反应中的重要性。总体而言，这项研究将确定未来可能测试的新靶点，以测试它们促进骨骼肌血管生长的能力。

The major goal of the research performed in my laboratory is to discover novel strategies for controlling blood vessel formation in skeletal muscle. Growth of new blood vessels is a normal healthy response that enables our muscles to adapt appropriately to varying energy demands, including the storage and use of dietary fats. In the short term, an excess of dietary fat promotes beneficial adaptations in the skeletal muscle, to help store and use the excess fat. Such adaptations often include the growth of new blood vessels, to help with the delivery of the energy to the muscle cells. However the signals that coordinate this response in healthy individuals are not known. My research group will focus on defining the relationship between short term fat excess and the regulation of blood vessel growth in skeletal muscle. Second, we will evaluate the potential role of a cell that resides between blood vessels and skeletal muscle cells, the pericyte, as an important coordinator of the adaptive responses to excess dietary fat. We will investigate the function of the protein leptin as an important communicating signal that is produced and released from pericytes to coordinate adaptations in muscle cells and blood vessels. A strength and uniqueness of this project is the combination of approaches that we will employ (both mouse and human muscle, and cell culture models), which will allow us to uncover unique evidence of the regulation of blood vessel growth by fat excess, and the importance of pericytes in coordinating this response. Overall, this research will identify novel targets that may be tested in the future for their capacity to enhance blood vessel growth in skeletal muscle.