Endothelial cells promote neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation associated with VEGF activated Notch and Pten signaling.

To investigate whether and how endothelial cells affect neurogenesis, we established a system to co-culture endothelial cells and brain slices of neonatal rat and observed how subventricular zone cells differentiate in the presence of endothelial cells. In the presence of endothelial cells, neural stem cells increased in number, as did differentiated neurons and glia. The augmentation of neurogenesis was reversed by diminishing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in endothelial cells with RNA interference (RNAi). Microarray analysis indicated that expression levels of 112 genes were significantly altered by co-culture and that expression of 81 of the 112 genes recovered to normal levels following RNAi of VEGF in endothelial cells. Pathway mapping showed an enrichment of genes in the Notch and Pten pathways. These data indicate that endothelial cells promote neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation associated with VEGF, possibly by activating the Notch and Pten pathways. Developmental Dynamics 239:2345-2353, 2010.