• Pengfei Liang, Bimei Jiang, Chunliu Lv, Xu Huang, Li Sun, Pihong Zhang, and Xiaoyuan Huang.
• Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
• Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 2013 Oct 1; 1830 (10): 4500-12.

BackgroundThe present study aims to examine the expression patterns and roles of nucleolin during the recovery of heat-denatured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs).MethodsDeep partial thickness burn model in Sprague-Dawley rats and the heat denatured cell model (52°C, 35s) were used. The expression of nucleolin was measured using Western blot analysis and real-time PCR. Angiogenesis was assessed using in vitro parameters including endothelial cell proliferation, transwell migration assay, and scratched wound healing. Gene transfection and RNA interference approaches were employed to investigate the roles of nucleolin.ResultsNucleolin mRNA and protein expression showed a time-dependent increase during the recovery of heat-denatured dermis and HUVECs. Heat-denaturation time-dependently promoted cell growth, adhesion, migration, scratched wound healing and formation of tube-like structures in HUVECs. These effects of heat denaturation on endothelial wound healing and formation of tube-like structures were prevented by knockdown of nucleolin, whereas over-expression of nucleolin increased cell growth, migration, and formation of tube-like structures in cultured HUVEC endothelial cells. In addition, we found that the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) increased during the recovery of heat-denatured dermis and HUVECs, and nucleolin up-regulated VEGF in HUVECs.ConclusionsThe present study reveals that the expression of nucleolin is up-regulated, and plays a pro-angiogenic role during the recovery of heat-denatured dermis and its mechanism is probably dependent on production of VEGF.General SignificanceWe find a novel and important pro-angiogenic role of nucleolin during the recovery of heat-denatured dermis.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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