Hypoxia reprograms VEGF signaling to differentially control ADAMTS2 and ADAMTS3 expression in endothelial cells.

Abstract

ADAMTS2/-3, key metalloproteinases involved in collagen processing and extracellular matrix dynamics, remain insufficiently characterized in terms of their transcriptional regulation under hypoxic and pro-angiogenic conditions. In this study, we demonstrate that VEGF₁₆₅ robustly enhances ADAMTS2/-3 expression in endothelial cells, with hypoxia providing a striking amplification of this response. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that hypoxia and VEGF induced HIF-mediated and time-varying expression responses in ADAMTS2/-3. Using HUVECs exposed to CoCl₂-induced hypoxia, VEGF stimulation led to substantial increases in ADAMTS2 (approximately 19-fold at 3 h) and ADAMTS3 (approximately 46-fold at 3 h) mRNA levels, accompanied by concordant protein upregulation. Promoter-reporter assays revealed strong VEGF responsiveness in defined ADAMTS2 (-658/+112) and ADAMTS3 (-131/+40; -1340/+40) promoter fragments, particularly under hypoxic conditions. Pharmacological inhibition showed that JNK, MAPK/ERK, p38, and PI3K pathways each contributed partially to VEGF-mediated transcription, indicating multi-pathway convergence rather than single-pathway dependency. This finding is consistent with RNA-seq analyses showing that VEGF-related signaling is extensively re-regulated under hypoxic conditions. Extension of these analyses to MG-63 and SAOS-2 cell lines revealed modest but consistent VEGF-induced upregulation, supporting a tissue-independent regulatory axis. Collectively, these findings position ADAMTS2/-3 as potent hypoxia- and VEGF-responsive genes, uncovering their integration into HIF-1α-dependent transcriptional networks and VEGF-activated signaling cascades. This work highlights the relevance of ADAMTS2/-3 in angiogenesis-associated extracellular matrix remodeling and identifies them as promising biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in hypoxia-driven vascular pathology.