Research Overview:

One long-range objective of the research in the Argraves Laboratory is to establish the importance of signaling elicited by the sphingolipid, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), in blood vessel formation. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding S1P signaling in both embryonic blood vessel formation and adult neovascular processes such as those associated with tumor progression and collateral vessel formation following cardiac infarct. Recent findings by investigators in the Argraves lab have provided the first indications that S1P signaling is vital to the process of vasculogenesis (de novo formation of blood vessels). A major tool in these investigations has been the mouse allantois explant culture system. Work is currently underway to determine the role of specific receptors in S1P signaling events that are critical for vasculogenesis. To address this question we are studying vasculogenesis in cultured allantoides from a series of mice deficient in the expression of the S1P receptors. In addition, we are employing DNA microarray analysis to identify the profile of genes whose expression is modulated by S1P during vasculogenesis.

Kelley Argraves and her thesis mentor, Dr. Dudley Strickland, at the J. H. Holland Laboratory, American Red Cross, Rockville, MD, 1997