Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor Flt-1 negatively regulates developmental blood vessel formation by modulating endothelial cell division.

Mice lacking the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor flt-1 die of vascular overgrowth, and we are interested in how flt-1 normally prevents this outcome. Our results support a model whereby aberrant endothelial cell division is the cellular mechanism resulting in vascular overgrowth, and they suggest that VEGF-dependent endothelial cell division is normally finely modulated by flt-1 to produce blood vessels. Flt-1(-/-) embryonic stem cell cultures had a 2-fold increase in endothelial cells by day 8, and the endothelial cell mitotic index was significantly elevated before day 8. Flt-1 mutant embryos also had an increased endothelial cell mitotic index, indicating that aberrant endothelial cell division occurs in vivo in the absence of flt-1. The flt-1 mutant vasculature of the cultures was partially rescued by mitomycin C treatment, consistent with a cell division defect in the mutant background. Analysis of cultures at earlier time points showed no significant differences until day 5, when flt-1 mutant cultures had increased beta-galactosidase(+) cells, indicating that the expansion of flt-1 responsive cells occurs after day 4. Mitomycin C treatment blocked this early expansion, suggesting that aberrant division of angioblasts and/or endothelial cells is a hallmark of the flt-1 mutant phenotype throughout vascular development. Consistent with this model is the finding that expansion of platelet and endothelial cell adhesion molecule(+) and VE-cadherin(+) vascular cells in the flt-1 mutant background first occurs between day 5 and day 6. Taken together, these data show that flt-1 normally modulates vascular growth by controlling the rate of endothelial cell division both in vitro and in vivo.