Similar Datasets
Project description:A miRNA Cassette Reprograms Smooth Muscle Cells into Endothelial Cells
| PRJNA753869 | ENA
Project description:The vascular endothelium constitutes the inner lining of the blood vessel and is directly involved in the control of blood fluidity, vascular tone, platelet aggregation, regulation of immunity, inflammation, and angiogenesis. Malfunction and injuries of the endothelium can cause cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading causes of death globally. The impairment of the endothelium is a hallmark in other diseases as well such as sepsis, stroke, tumor growth, insulin resistance, venous thrombosis, and chronic kidney failure. Generation of effective sources to replace injured endothelial cells (ECs) could have significant clinical impact and somatic cell sources like peripheral or cord blood cannot credibly supply enough endothelial cell progenitors for multitude of treatments. Pluripotent stem cells are a promising source for a reliable EC supply that have the potential to repair, reconstruct, replace damaged cells, and revascularize ischemic areas in order to restore tissue function and treat vascular diseases. We have developed methods to differentiate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) efficiently and robustly across multiple iPSC lines into non-tissue-specific pan vascular ECs (iECs) with high purity. These iECs present with canonical endothelial cell markers and exhibit measures of endothelial cell functionality with uptake of acetylated low-density lipoprotein (Dil-Ac-LDL) and tube formation. Using proteomic analysis, we revealed the iECs are more proteomically similar to established umbilical vein ECs (HUVECs) than to iPSCs. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) were most shared between HUVECs and iECs, and potential targets for increasing the proteomic similarity of iECs to HUVECs were identified. PTM analysis can be used in the future to glean additional insights and generate novel hypotheses. Here we demonstrate an efficient robust method to differentiate iPSCs into functional ECs, and for the first time provide a comprehensive protein expression profile of iECs, which indicates their similarities with a widely used immortalized HUVECs, allowing for further mechanistic studies of EC development, signaling and metabolism for future regenerative applications.
2023-07-05 | PXD038493 | Pride
Project description:Objective: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) undergo the phenotypic changes from contractile to synthetic state during vascular remodeling after ischemia. SIRT1 protects against stress-induced vascular remodeling via maintaining VSMC differentiated phenotype. However, the effect of smooth muscle SIRT1 on the functions of endothelial cells (ECs) has not been well clarified. Here, we explored the role of smooth muscle SIRT1 in endothelial angiogenesis after ischemia and the underlying mechanisms. Methods: We performed a femoral artery ligation model using VSMC specific human SIRT1 transgenic (SIRT1-Tg) and knockout (KO) mice. Angiogenesis was assessed in in vivo by quantification of the total number of capillaries, wound healing and matrigel plug assays, and in vitro ECs by tube formation, proliferation and migration assays. The interaction of HIF1? with circRNA was examined by using RNA immunoprecipitation, RNA pull-down and in situ hybridization assays. Results: The blood flow recovery was significantly attenuated in SIRT1-Tg mice, and markedly improved in SIRT1-Tg mice treated with SIRT1 inhibitor EX527 and in SIRT1-KO mice. The density of capillaries significantly decreased in the ischemic gastrocnemius of SIRT1-Tg mice compared with SIRT1-KO and WT mice, with reduced expression of VEGFA, which resulted in decreased number of arterioles. We identified that the phenotypic switching of SIRT1-Tg VSMCs was attenuated in response to hypoxia, with high levels of contractile proteins and reduced expression of the synthetic markers and NG2, compared with SIRT1-KO and WT VSMCs. Mechanistically, SIRT1-Tg VSMCs inhibited endothelial angiogenic activity induced by hypoxia via the exosome cZFP609. The cZFP609 was delivered into ECs, and detained HIF1? in the cytoplasm via its interaction with HIF1?, thereby inhibiting VEGFA expression and endothelial angiogenic functions. Meantime, the high cZFP609 expression was observed in the plasma of the patients with atherosclerotic or diabetic lower extremity peripheral artery disease, associated with reduced ankle-brachial index. Knockdown of cZFP609 improved blood flow recovery after hindlimb ischemia in SIRT1-Tg mice. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that SIRT1 may impair the plasticity of VSMCs. cZFP609 mediates VSMCs to reprogram endothelial functions, and serves as a valuable indicator to assess the prognosis and clinical outcomes of ischemic diseases.
| S-EPMC6956806 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To clarify how smoking leads to heart attacks and stroke, we developed an endothelial cell model (iECs) generated from human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) and evaluated its responses to tobacco smoke. These iECs exhibited a uniform endothelial morphology, expressed markers PECAM1/CD31, VWF/von Willebrand Factor, and CDH5/VE-Cadherin, and exhibited tube formation and Acetyl-LDL uptake comparable to primary endothelial cells (EC). RNA sequencing (RNAseq) revealed a robust correlation coefficient between iECs and EC (R = 0.76), whereas gene responses to smoke were qualitatively nearly identical between iECs and primary ECs (R=0.86). Further analysis of transcriptional responses implicated eighteen transcription factors in regulating responses to smoke treatment, and identified gene sets regulated by each transcription factor, including oxidative stress, DNA damage/repair, ER stress, apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest. Assays for 42 cytokines in HUVEC cells and iECs identified 23 cytokines that responded dynamically to cigarette smoke. These cytokines and cellular stress response pathways describe endothelial responses for lymphocyte attachment, activation of coagulation and complement, lymphocyte growth factors, and inflammation and fibrosis; EC-initiated events that collectively lead to atherosclerosis. Thus, these studies validate the iEC model and identify transcriptional response networks by which ECs respond to tobacco smoke. Our results systematically trace how ECs use these response networks to regulate genes and pathways, and finally cytokine signals to other cells, to initiate the diverse processes that lead to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
2020-04-20 | GSE141136 | GEO
Project description:Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a fatal disease characterized by a progressive increase in pulmonary artery pressure caused by pathological pulmonary artery remodeling. Here, we show that endothelial cell (EC) senescence plays a negative role in pulmonary hypertension via juxtacrine interaction with smooth muscle cells (SMCs). By using EC-specific progeroid mice that we recently generated, we discovered that EC progeria deteriorated vascular remodeling in the lungs, and exacerbated pulmonary hypertension in mice exposed to chronic hypoxia. Mechanistically, senescent ECs overexpressed Notch ligands, which resulted in increased Notch signaling and activated proliferation and migration capacities in neighboring SMCs. Pharmacological inhibition of Notch signaling reduced the effects of senescent ECs on SMCs functions in vitro, and improved the worsened pulmonary hypertension in EC-specific progeroid mice in vivo. Our findings show that EC senescence is a critical disease-modifying factor in PAH and that EC-mediated Notch signaling is a pharmacotherapeutic target for the treatment of PAH, particularly in the elderly.
2023-04-30 | GSE228491 | GEO
Project description:Blood vessel endothelial cells (EC) display heterogeneity across vascular beds, which is at the bases of organ specificity and anticipated to drive site-specific vascular pathology. It is assessed in vivo using transcriptomics, and in vitro using functional assays, but how proteomes compare across human in vitro cultured ECs remains incompletely characterized. We generated an in-depth human EC proteomic landscape (>8000 proteins) across 6 vascular beds and 2 in vitro models both in steady-state and upon IFNγ-induced inflammation. EC proteomes displayed a high similarity and organ specific proteins were limited. Variation between ECs and donors was mainly based in biological processes underlying proliferation and differentiation. BOECs and HUVECs represented the extremes of proteomic phenotypes. IFNγ responses were highly conserved across cellular sources. Harnessing dynamics in protein abundances we delineated interactor networks of VWF and VE-Cadherin. This EC landscape provides an extensive proteomic addition in studying EC biology and heterogeneity from an in vitro perspective.
2024-07-25 | PXD045899 | Pride
Project description:Access to smooth muscle cells (SMC) would create opportunities for tissue engineering, drug testing, and disease modeling. Herein we report the direct conversion of human endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) to induced smooth muscle cells (iSMC) by induced expression of MYOCD. The EPC undergo a cytoskeletal rearrangement resembling that of mesenchymal cells within 3 days post initiation of MYOCD expression. By day 7, the reprogrammed cells show upregulation of smooth muscle markers ACTA2, MYH11, and TAGLN by qRT-PCR and ACTA2 and MYH11 expression by immunofluorescence. By two weeks, they resemble umbilical artery SMC in microarray gene expression analysis. The iSMC, in contrast to EPC control, show calcium transients in response to phenylephrine stimulation and a contractility an order of magnitude higher than that of EPC as determined by traction force microscopy. Tissue-engineered blood vessels constructed using iSMC show functionality with respect to flow- and drug-mediated vasodilation and vasoconstriction.
| S-EPMC4763719 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) and endothelial cells (EC) were stimulated with factor VII activating protease and transcriptional changes were determined.
2017-10-13 | E-MTAB-5592 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:ObjectiveNFU1 is a mitochondrial iron-sulfur scaffold protein, involved in iron-sulfur assembly and transfer to complex II and LAS (lipoic acid synthase). Patients with the point mutation NFU1G208C and CRISPR/CAS9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat-associated 9)-generated rats develop mitochondrial dysfunction leading to pulmonary arterial hypertension. However, the mechanistic understanding of pulmonary vascular proliferation due to a single mutation in NFU1 remains unresolved. Approach and Results: Quantitative proteomics of isolated mitochondria showed the entire phenotypic transformation of NFU1G206C rats with a disturbed mitochondrial proteomic landscape, involving significant changes in the expression of 208 mitochondrial proteins. The NFU1 mutation deranged the expression pattern of electron transport proteins, resulting in a significant decrease in mitochondrial respiration. Reduced reliance on mitochondrial respiration amplified glycolysis in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell (PASMC) and activated GPD (glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase), linking glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation and lipid metabolism. Decreased PDH (pyruvate dehydrogenase) activity due to the lipoic acid shortage is compensated by increased fatty acid metabolism and oxidation. PASMC became dependent on extracellular fatty acid sources due to upregulated transporters such as CD36 (cluster of differentiation 36) and CPT (carnitine palmitoyltransferase)-1. Finally, the NFU1 mutation produced a dysregulated antioxidant system in the mitochondria, leading to increased reactive oxygen species levels. PASMC from NFU1 rats showed apoptosis resistance, increased anaplerosis, and attained a highly proliferative phenotype. Attenuation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species by mitochondrial-targeted antioxidant significantly decreased PASMC proliferation.ConclusionsThe alteration in iron-sulfur metabolism completely transforms the proteomic landscape of the mitochondria, leading toward metabolic plasticity and redistribution of energy sources to the acquisition of a proliferative phenotype by the PASMC.
| S-EPMC7837686 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Adult endothelial cells (ECs) are known to possess organ-specific gene expression, morphology and function, but whether organ-specific EC gene expression is present during human development is not known. Here, we used bulk RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) to interrogate the developing human intestine, lung, and kidney in order to identify organ-enriched EC-gene signatures. FACS was used to isolate EC (CD31+CD144+, n=13) and non-EC (CD31-CD144-, n=16) populations from these three organs, profiling at least 4 biological replicates for each organ system. The biological specimens profiled were between 11-20 gestational weeks. We also sequenced cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) via bulk RNAseq. Computational approaches were used to identify organ-specific EC-enriched gene signatures across human fetal lung, intestine, and kidney ECs.
2020-12-20 | E-MTAB-9372 | biostudies-arrayexpress