RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Blood flow-induced Notch activation and endothelial migration enable embryonic vascular remodeling
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 095307
DO 10.1101/095307
A1 Bart Weijts
A1 Edgar Gutierrez
A1 Semion K Saikin
A1 Ararat J Ablooglu
A1 David Traver
A1 Alex Groisman
A1 Eugene Tkachenko
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/07/09/095307.abstract
AB Arteries and veins are formed independently by different types of endothelial cells (ECs). In vascular remodeling, arteries and veins become connected and some arteries become veins. It is unclear how ECs in transforming vessels change their type and how fates of individual vessels are determined. In embryonic trunk, vascular remodeling transforms arterial intersegmental vessels (ISVs) into a functional network of arteries and veins. We found that, once an ISV is connected to venous circulation, venous blood flow promotes upstream migration of ECs that results in displacement of arterial ECs by venous ECs, completing the transformation of this ISV into a vein without trans-differentiation of ECs. Arterial blood flow initiated in two neighboring ISVs prevents their transformation into veins by activating Notch signaling in ECs. Together, different responses of ECs to arterial and venous blood flow lead to the formation of a balanced network with equal numbers of arteries and veins.