Abstract

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 zebrafish trunk, vascular remodeling transforms arterial intersegmental vessels (ISVs) into a functional network of arteries and veins. Here we find 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 formation of a balanced network with equal numbers of arteries and veins.

Details

Title
Blood flow-induced Notch activation and endothelial migration enable vascular remodeling in zebrafish embryos
Author
Weijts, Bart 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Gutierrez, Edgar 2 ; Saikin, Semion K 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ablooglu, Ararat J 4 ; Traver, David 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Groisman, Alex 6 ; Tkachenko, Eugene 7 

1  Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA 
2  Dpartment of Physics, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; MuWells Inc, San Diego, CA, USA 
3  Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA 
4  Department of Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA 
5  Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA 
6  Dpartment of Physics, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA 
7  Department of Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; MuWells Inc, San Diego, CA, USA 
Pages
1-11
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Dec 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07732-7
ProQuest document ID
2156486589
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.