A novel function for the melanocortin 1 receptor: positive regulation of cell migration in human artery endothelial cells

We hypothesize that human artery ECs express a functional melanocortin receptor and that its activation might play a role in EC migration. We demonstrated that primary HAOECs express a functional MC1R and that its engagement with melanocortins modulates specific gene expression patterns to accelerate HAOEC migration. Three independent time-course experiments of an in vitro directional cell migration assay of α-MSH-stimulated HAOECs were performed. RNA was collected at 0.5h, 3h, 6h and 12h from α-MSH-stimulated and control cells. Hybridization was performed in duplicate for each sample for a total of 48 samples.