Project description:The vascular tree has considerable diversity, with discrete regions having different physiologic characteristics and permeability. Of note are venules that are significantly more sensitive to pro-inflammatory cytokines than arterioles. We used microarrays to identify molecular signatures that distinguish primary human venous endothelial cells from arterial endothelial cells. We used microarrays to identify genes differentially expressed by venous vs arterial human endothelial cells.
Project description:HUVEC-FUCCI cells were used to demonstrate that different endothelial cell cycle states provide distict windows of opportunity for gene expression in response to extrinsic signals. HUVEC-FUCCI were FACS-isolated into three different cell cycle states. Peptide digests from the resulting lysates showed differentially expressed proteins among the three cell cycles. These studies show that endothelial cell cycle state determines the propensity for arterial vs. venous fate specification.
Project description:Formation and maturation of a functional blood vascular system is required for the development and maintenance of all tissues in the body. During the process of blood vessel development, primordial endothelial cells are formed and become specified toward arterial or venous fates to generate a circulatory network that provides nutrients and oxygen to, and removes metabolic waste from, all tissues. Specification of arterial and venous endothelial cells occurs in conjunction with suppression of endothelial cell cycle progression, and endothelial cell hyperproliferation is associated with potentially lethal arterial-venous malformations. However, the mechanistic role that cell cycle state plays in arterial-venous specification is unknown. Herein, studying vascular development in Cdh5-CreERT2;R26FUCCI2aR reporter mice, we find that venous and arterial endothelial cells exhibit a propensity for different cell cycle states during development and in adulthood. That is, venous endothelial cells are predominantly FUCCI-Negative, while arterial endothelial cells are enriched for the FUCCI-Red reporter. Single cell RNA sequencing analysis of developing retinal endothelial cells reveals that venous endothelial cells are enriched for the FUCCI-Negative state and BMP signaling, while arterial endothelial cells are enriched for the FUCCI-Red state and TGF-b signaling. Further transcriptional analyses and live imaging of cultured endothelial cells expressing the FUCCI reporter show that reporter-negative corresponds to an early G1 state and reporter-red corresponds to late G1 state. We find the early G1 state is essential for BMP4-induced venous gene expression, whereas late G1 state is essential for TGF-b1-induced arterial gene expression. In a mouse model of endothelial cell hyperproliferation and disrupted arterial-venous specification, pharmacological inhibition of endothelial cell cycle prevents the vascular defects. Collectively, our results show that endothelial cell cycle control plays a key role in arterial-venous network formation, and distinct cell cycle states provide distinct windows of opportunity for the molecular induction of arterial vs. venous specification.
Project description:Formation and maturation of a functional blood vascular system is required for the development and maintenance of all tissues in the body. During the process of blood vessel development, primordial endothelial cells are formed and become specified toward arterial or venous fates to generate a circulatory network that provides nutrients and oxygen to, and removes metabolic waste from, all tissues. Specification of arterial and venous endothelial cells occurs in conjunction with suppression of endothelial cell cycle progression, and endothelial cell hyperproliferation is associated with potentially lethal arterial-venous malformations. However, the mechanistic role that cell cycle state plays in arterial-venous specification is unknown. Herein, studying vascular development in Cdh5-CreERT2;R26FUCCI2aR reporter mice, we find that venous and arterial endothelial cells exhibit a propensity for different cell cycle states during development and in adulthood. That is, venous endothelial cells are predominantly FUCCI-Negative, while arterial endothelial cells are enriched for the FUCCI-Red reporter. Single cell RNA sequencing analysis of developing retinal endothelial cells reveals that venous endothelial cells are enriched for the FUCCI-Negative state and BMP signaling, while arterial endothelial cells are enriched for the FUCCI-Red state and TGF-b signaling. Further transcriptional analyses and live imaging of cultured endothelial cells expressing the FUCCI reporter show that reporter-negative corresponds to an early G1 state and reporter-red corresponds to late G1 state. We find the early G1 state is essential for BMP4-induced venous gene expression, whereas late G1 state is essential for TGF-b1-induced arterial gene expression. In a mouse model of endothelial cell hyperproliferation and disrupted arterial-venous specification, pharmacological inhibition of endothelial cell cycle prevents the vascular defects. Collectively, our results show that endothelial cell cycle control plays a key role in arterial-venous network formation, and distinct cell cycle states provide distinct windows of opportunity for the molecular induction of arterial vs. venous specification.
Project description:Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) presented in venous plasma have recently been demonstrated as powerful biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognostic prediction of complex diseases like cancer. Nevertheless, those presented in arterial plasma have been ignored based on the assumption that the miRNA profiles in arterial and venous plasma would be identical. Here, we disputed this intuitive assumption by comparing arterial and venous plasma miRNA expression profiles from male rats using microarray technique. Though the microRNA profiles were largely similar, a considerable number of miRNAs showed significant differential expression, including 10 arterial highly expressed miRNAs and 14 venous highly expressed miRNAs. The differentially expressed miRNAs were validated by qRT-PCR. We performed computational analysis of the function enrichment and disease association of these miRNAs and their targets. Our analysis also suggested significant correlations between plasma miRNA expression and tissue miRNA expression. Four arterial highly expressed miRNAs showed enriched expression in specific tissues and thus could serve as novel biomarker candidates.
Project description:Distinct endothelial cell cycle states (early G1 vs. late G1) provide different “windows of opportunity” to enable the differential expression of genes that regulate venous and arterial specification, respectively. Endothelial cell cycle control and arterial-venous identities are disrupted in vascular malformations including arteriovenous (AV) shunts which is a hallmark of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). We show how endothelial cell late G1 arrest induced by Palbociclib modulates the expression of genes regulating arterio-venous identity and prevents AVM development induced by BMP9/10 inhibition.
Project description:A specific tracing system, selectively labeling tomato+ intramyocardial vessels with the Nes-CreER driver, was used together with the Nes-Gfp reporter and endomucin marker to separate, from the same hearts, the three subsets of Ecs (ventricular endocardium, intramyocardial arterial-enriched, and subepicardial venous-enriched endothelial cells), which were subject to transcriptome profiling by RNASeq.
Project description:Molecular pathways regulating the development of arterial and venous endothelial cells (ECs) are now well-established, but control of parallel arterial-venous (A-V) alignment is unclear. We report that arterial-venous alignment in the skin is determined by apelin receptor (APJ) expression in venous ECs. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression in endothelial cells that has relationship with the deficient of APJ. Endothelial cells were marked and isolated by Fluorescence-activated cell sorting in Trizol.