RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Morphogenesis and differentiation of embryonic vascular smooth muscle cells in zebrafish
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 414003
DO 10.1101/414003
A1 Thomas R. Whitesell
A1 Paul Chrystal
A1 Jae-Ryeon Ryu
A1 Nicole Munsie
A1 Ann Grosse
A1 Curtis French
A1 Matthew L. Workentine
A1 Rui Li
A1 Lihua Julie Zhu
A1 Andrew Waskiewicz
A1 Ordan J. Lehmann
A1 Nathan D. Lawson
A1 Sarah J. Childs
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/10/414003.abstract
AB Despite the critical role of vascular mural cells (smooth muscle cells and pericytes) in supporting the endothelium of blood vessels, we know little of their early morphogenesis and differentiation. foxc1b:EGFP expressing cells in zebrafish associate with the vascular endothelium (kdrl) and co-express a smooth muscle marker (acta2), but not a pericyte marker (pdgfrβ). The expression of foxc1b in early peri-endothelial mesenchymal cells allows us to follow the morphogenesis of mesenchyme into acta2 expressing vascular smooth muscle cells. We show that mural cells expressing different markers associate with vessels of different diameters, depending on their embryonic location and developmental timing, suggesting marker expression is predictive of functional differences. We identify gene expression signatures for an enriched vascular smooth muscle cell population (foxc1b + acta2) and all smooth muscle (acta2) using fluorescence-activated cell sorting and RNA-Seq. Finally, we demonstrate that progressive loss of foxc1a/foxc1b results in decreased smooth muscle cell coverage. Together, our data highlight the early cellular dynamics and transcriptome profiles of smooth muscle cells in vivo, using foxc1b as a unique tool to probe vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation.Summary Statement Tracing the morphogenesis and transcriptome of early vascular smooth muscle cells using foxc1b