Recent advances and new insights into muscular lymphangiogenesis in health and disease

• Published in: Life sciences (1973) Vol. 211; pp. 261 - 269
• Main Author: Ji, Rui-Cheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 15-10-2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Animals; Disorders; Endurance; Exercise; Homeostasis; Humans; Immune response; Lymphangiogenesis; Lymphatic system; Lymphatic vessels; Lymphatic Vessels - blood supply; Lymphedema; Muscle disorders; Muscle pain; Muscle, Skeletal - blood supply; Muscles; Muscular Diseases - physiopathology; Physical training; Regulators; Skeletal muscle; Skeletal system; Structure-function relationships; Vascular endothelial growth factor; Vascular endothelial growth factor receptors; VEGF-C; VEGF-D; VEGFR-3; Wound healing; Exercise; Muscle disorders; VEGFR-3; VEGF-C; VEGF-D; Lymphatic vessels; Lymphangiogenesis; Skeletal muscle
• ISSN: 0024-3205; 1879-0631
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lfs.2018.09.043

The lymphatic vessels have been implicated in maintenance of interstitial fluid homeostasis and immune responses, and pathological conditions including inflammation, wound healing, lymphedema and tumor progression. The knowledge about the lymphatic structure and function in muscles, especially in muscular disorders, remains fragmentary and elusive. LYVE-1-positive initial lymphatics are generally found around skeletal muscle fibers, but not distributed in a fiber type-specific manner. Recent advances in lymphatic research have identified that exercise stimuli trigger adaptive changes in the behavior of initial lymphatics and upregulate lymphangiogenesis. Increasing evidence has supported that muscle disorders are closely correlated with lymphatic dysfunction, growth and remodeling. During these processes, VEGFR-3 and its ligands VEGF-C and VEGF-D are important regulators of muscular lymphangiogenesis. Further studies are necessary to clarify the structural and molecular plasticity of mammalian muscular lymphatics in response to endurance training and pathological events.
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