Epigenetic aspects of peptidergic regulation of vascular endothelial cell proliferation in aging

Short peptides, vesugen and D-7, stimulated the synthesis of the proliferation-associated protein Ki-67, the expression of which decreased during aging in tissue-specific cell cultures obtained from young and old animals and in dissociated vascular endothelial cell cultures. Molecular docking methods were used to reveal the possibility of binding the vesugen and D-7 peptides to the promoter regions of the MKI67 gene, which encodes the Ki-67 protein. Both peptides have contact through the CATC sequence with core promoter 5’-agcctcaaccatcaggaaaacaagagt-3’, which is located in the MKI67 gene (ENSG00000148773) from -14 to +12 bp relative to the transcriptional initiation site. Thus, the vasoprotective effect of vesugen, which was previously revealed in elder people, can be manifested through epigenetic regulation of the Ki-67 gene expression. © 2015, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.