The presence of VEGF receptors on the luminal surface of endothelial cells affects VEGF distribution and VEGF signaling

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent cytokine that binds to specific receptors on the endothelial cells lining blood vessels. The signaling cascade triggered eventually leads to the formation of new capillaries, a process called angiogenesis. Distributions of VEGF receptors and VEGF ligands are therefore crucial determinants of angiogenic events and, to our knowledge, no quantification of abluminal vs. luminal receptors has been performed. We formulate a molecular-based compartment model to investigate the VEGF distribution in blood and tissue in humans and show that such quantification would lead to new insights on angiogenesis and VEGF-dependent diseases. Our multiscale model includes two major isoforms of VEGF (VEGF(121) and VEGF(165)), as well as their receptors (VEGFR1 and VEGFR2) and the non-signaling co-receptor neuropilin-1 (NRP1). VEGF can be transported between tissue and blood via transendothelial permeability and the lymphatics. VEGF receptors are located on both the luminal and abluminal sides of the endothelial cells. In this study, we analyze the effects of the VEGF receptor localization on the endothelial cells as well as of the lymphatic transport. We show that the VEGF distribution is affected by the luminal receptor density. We predict that the receptor signaling occurs mostly on the abluminal endothelial surface, assuming that VEGF is secreted by parenchymal cells. However, for a low abluminal but high luminal receptor density, VEGF binds predominantly to VEGFR1 on the abluminal surface and VEGFR2 on the luminal surface. Such findings would be pertinent to pathological conditions and therapies related to VEGF receptor imbalance and overexpression on the endothelial cells and will hopefully encourage experimental receptor quantification for both luminal and abluminal surfaces on endothelial cells.