Roudier, EmilieEssue, Dayna Olivia2025-04-102025-04-102024-12-102025-04-10https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42834In the older population, the loss of small blood vessels (capillaries), known as rarefaction, precedes muscle atrophy. Aging alters the capacity of endothelial cells, the main constituents of capillaries, to form new blood vessels through angiogenesis. Epigenetics has emerged as a new research area to uncover how an ageing phenotype is acquired. Through this project we investigate how the epigenetic writer Enhancer of Zeste Homologue 2 (EZH2) regulates the pro-angiogenic pathway downstream of vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) and its receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) in skeletal muscle microvascular endothelial cells (SMECs) using an in-vitro model of aging. Our results suggest that EZH2 activity might restrain angiogenesis by impairing the expression of genes downstream of the VEGF-A pathway, such as Nr4a3 and Egr3. Our findings indicate that EZH2 potentially supports vascular aging. Yet, caution is required as in-vitro models, such as passaging, fails to reproduce all aspects of aging, more particularly senescence in primary cellsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Electronic Thesis or Dissertation2025-04-10AgingBiologyEndothelial cellsAngiogenesisVEGFEGR3EpigeneticsBivalence