Abstract
Background Endothelial cells (EC) sit at the forefront of dramatic physiologic changes occurring in the pulmonary circulation during late embryonic and early postnatal life. First, as the lung moves from the hypoxic fetal environment to oxygen-rich postnatal environment, marked changes in pulmonary EC structure and function facilitate a marked increase in blood flow from the placenta to the lungs. Subsequently, pulmonary angiogenesis expands the microvasculature to drive exponential distal lung growth during early postnatal life. Yet, how these marked physiologic changes alter distinct EC subtypes to facilitate the transition of the pulmonary circulation and regulate vascular growth and remodeling remains incompletely understood.
Methods In this report, we employed single cell RNA-transcriptomics and in situ RNA imaging to profile pulmonary EC in the developing mouse lung from just before birth through this period of rapid postnatal growth.
Results Multiple, transcriptionally distinct macro- and microvascular EC were identified in the late embryonic and early postnatal lung, with gene expression profiles distinct from their adult EC counterparts. A novel arterial subtype, unique to the developing lung localized to the distal parenchyma and expressed genes that regulate vascular growth and patterning. Birth particularly heightened microvascular diversity, inducing dramatic shifts in the transcriptome of distinct microvascular subtypes in pathways related to proliferation, migration and antigen presentation. Two distinct waves of EC proliferation were identified, including one just prior to birth, and a second during early alveolarization, a time of exponential pulmonary angiogenesis. Chronic hyperoxia, an injury that impairs parenchymal and vascular growth, induced a common gene signature among all pulmonary EC, unique alterations to distinct microvascular EC subtypes, and disrupted EC-EC and EC-immune cell cross talk.
Conclusions Taken together, these data reveal tremendous diversity of pulmonary EC during a critical window of postnatal vascular growth, and provide a detailed molecular map that can be used to inform both normal vascular development and alterations in EC diversity upon injury. These data have important implications for lung diseases marked by dysregulated angiogenesis and pathologic pulmonary vascular remodeling.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
