Coronary arterial development is regulated by a Dll4-Jag1-EphrinB2 signaling cascade
- Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), Spain
Abstract
Coronaries are essential for myocardial growth and heart function. Notch is crucial for mouse embryonic angiogenesis, but its role in coronary development remains uncertain. We show Jag1, Dll4 and activated Notch1 receptor expression in sinus venosus (SV) endocardium. Endocardial Jag1 removal blocks SV capillary sprouting, while Dll4 inactivation stimulates excessive capillary growth, suggesting that ligand antagonism regulates coronary primary plexus formation. Later endothelial ligand removal, or forced expression of Dll4 or the glycosyltransferase Mfng, blocks coronary plexus remodeling, arterial differentiation, and perivascular cell maturation. Endocardial deletion of Efnb2 phenocopies the coronary arterial defects of Notch mutants. Angiogenic rescue experiments in ventricular explants, or in primary human endothelial cells, indicate that EphrinB2 is a critical effector of antagonistic Dll4 and Jag1 functions in arterial morphogenesis. Thus, coronary arterial precursors are specified in the SV prior to primary coronary plexus formation and subsequent arterial differentiation depends on a Dll4-Jag1-EphrinB2 signaling cascade.
Article and author information
Author details
Joquim Grego-Bessa
José Luis De La Pompa Mínguez
Funding
Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (SAF2016-78370-R)
- Joquim Grego-Bessa
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CB16/11/00399)
- José Luis De La Pompa Mínguez
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Animal studies were approved by the CNIC Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee and by the Madrid regional government (Ref. PROEX 118/15). All animal procedures conformed to EU Directive 2010/63EU and Recommendation 2007/526/EC regarding the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes, enforced in Spanish law under Real Decreto 1201/2005.
Reviewing Editor
- Bin Zhou, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Publication history
- Received: July 5, 2019
- Accepted: December 1, 2019
- Accepted Manuscript published: December 2, 2019 (version 1)
- Accepted Manuscript updated: December 3, 2019 (version 2)
- Accepted Manuscript updated: December 4, 2019 (version 3)
- Version of Record published: December 17, 2019 (version 4)
Copyright
© 2019, Travisano et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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