Project description:Cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are the most common vascular malformations worldwide and the leading cause of hemorrhagic strokes that result in crippling neurological deficits. Here, using newly generated mouse model, we discovered that genome-wide ocuppancy of H4K8ac and H3K27me3 decreased in mouse cerebral AVMs.
Project description:To investigate the endothelial-mesenchymal transition in cerebral arteriovenous malformation. We performed gene expression profiling analysis using the data obtained from RNA-seq of CD31+CD45- brain cells in Cdh5cre;Mgpflox/flox mice with or without tamoxifen induction.
Project description:Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (CCM) is a brain vascular disease with various neurological symptoms. In this study, we describe the inflammatory profile in CCM and show for the first time the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in rodents and humans with CCM. Through RNA-seq analysis of cerebellum endothelial cells from wild-type mice and mice with anendothelial cell-specific ablation of the Ccm3 gene (Ccm3iECKO), we show that endothelial cells from Ccm3iECKO mice have anincreased expression of inflammation-related genes.
Project description:Lumen integrity in vascularization requires fully differentiated endothelial cells (ECs). Here, we report that endothelial-mesenchymal transitions (EndMTs) emerged in ECs of cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVMs) and caused disruption of the lumen or lumen disorder. We show that excessive Sry-box 2 (Sox2) signaling was responsible for the EndMTs in cerebral AVMs. EC-specific suppression of Sox2 normalized endothelial differentiation and lumen formation, and improved the cerebral AVMs. Epigenetic studies showed that induction of Sox2 altered the cerebral-endothelial transcriptional landscape, and identified jumonji domain-containing protein 5 (JMJD5) as a direct target of Sox2. Sox2 interacted with JMJD5 to induce EndMTs in cerebral ECs. Furthermore, we utilized a high throughput system to identify the beta-adrenergic antagonist pronethalol as an inhibitor of Sox2 expression. Treatment with pronethalol stabilized endothelial differentiation and lumen formation, which limited the cerebral AVMs.
Project description:Cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are the most common vascular malformations worldwide and the leading cause of hemorrhagic strokes that may result in crippling neurological deficits. Here, using newly generated mouse models, we uncovered that cerebral endothelial cells (ECs) acquired mesenchymal markers and caused vascular malformations. Interestingly, we found that limiting endothelial histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) prevented cerebral ECs from undergoing mesenchymal differentiation and reduced cerebral AVMs. We found that endothelial expression of HDAC2 and enhancer of zeste homolog 1 (EZH1) was altered in cerebral AVMs. These alterations changed the abundance of H4K8ac and H3K27me in the genes regulating endothelial and mesenchymal differentiation, which caused the ECs to acquire mesenchymal characteristics and form AVMs. Together, this investigation demonstrated that the induction of HDAC2 altered specific histone modifications, which resulted in mesenchymal characteristics in the ECs and cerebral AVMs. The results provided insight into the epigenetic impact on AVMs.