VEGF‐A‐induced immature DCs not mature DCs differentiation into endothelial‐like cells through ERK1/2‐dependent pathway

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells that play an important role in anti-tumour immunity. Endothelial-like differentiation of DCs is an interesting phenomenon. The specific role of vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) on the differentiation of immature DCs (iDCs) and mature DCs (mDCs) is worth further research. Here, we show that VEGF-A can induce iDCs to differentiate into endothelial-like cells (ELCs). But it has no obvious influence on mDCs. In the process of endothelial-like differentiation of iDCs, a sustained activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) and cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) was detected. VEGF-A induced the activation of ERK1/2, and led to the nuclear translocation of phosphorylation ERK1/2. Incubation of iDCs with the ERK1/2 upstream kinase MEK1/2 inhibitor PD98059, blocked the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and CREB as well as the endothelial-like differentiation of iDCs. These data suggest that VEGF-A induces endothelial-like differentiation of iDCs not mDCs through ERK1/2 signalling pathway. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.