Regulation of adhesion by vascular endothelial growth factor in HaCaT cells.

Cell adhesion is an important process during morphogenesis, differentiation, and homeostasis in cell biology. The role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in cell adhesion of keratinocytes is unclear. In our study, a human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT cells, which mimics various properties of normal epidermal keratinocytes, was included to elucidate the effect of VEGF on cell-cell adhesion and cell-plate adhesion. Expression of adhesion molecules account for cell adhesion and signal transduction pathways involved in the effect of VEGF on adhesion of HaCaT cells were further investigated. Significant increase of cell-cell adhesion but decrease of the cell-plate adhesion of HaCaT cells induced by VEGF(165) was detected. VEGF increases expression of E-cadherin, but inhibits expression of integrin α6β4 subunit. VEGF(165) at 100 ng/ml activates extracellular signal-regulated kinase. These changes of cell adhesion induced by VEGF were blocked by ERK and VEGFR-2 inhibitor. Our findings suggest that VEGF may modulate cell adhesion of HaCaT cells partly through activation of VEGFR-2/ERK1/2 signaling pathways.