RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Blood flow directs arterial-venous remodeling through Notch activation and endothelial cell migration
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 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/12/19/095307.abstract
AB Arteries and veins are lined by arterial and venous endothelial cells (ECs), which are functionally distinct1,2. During embryonic development, vascular remodeling transforms some arteries into veins. Arterial and venous embryonic ECs have the plasticity to transdifferentiate into each other 3–6, suggesting that the transformation of arteries to veins may be accompanied by transdifferentiation of ECs. Here, we show that transformation of arterial intersegmental vessels (alSVs) into veins occurs without trans-differentiation, by the displacement of arterial ECs by venous ECs, and requires normal blood flow. At the same time, the establishment of blood flow prevents neighboring alSVs from transforming into veins via the upregulation of Notch signaling in these alSVs. We propose that through these two processes, blood flow facilitates the transformation of the all-arterial trunk vasculature into a functional vascular network with near equal numbers of arteries and veins.