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Doh SJ, Yamakawa M, Santosa SM, Montana M, Guo K, Sauer JR, Curran N, Han KY, Yu C, Ema M, Rosenblatt MI, Chang JH, Azar DT. Fluorescent reporter transgenic mice for in vivo live imaging of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. Angiogenesis 2018; 21:677-698. [PMID: 29971641 DOI: 10.1007/s10456-018-9629-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2018] [Accepted: 06/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
The study of lymphangiogenesis is an emerging science that has revealed the lymphatic system as a central player in many pathological conditions including cancer metastasis, lymphedema, and organ graft rejection. A thorough understanding of the mechanisms of lymphatic growth will play a key role in the development of therapeutic strategies against these conditions. Despite the known potential of this field, the study of lymphatics has historically lagged behind that of hemangiogenesis. Until recently, significant strides in lymphatic studies were impeded by a lack of lymphatic-specific markers and suitable experimental models compared to those of the more immediately visible blood vasculature. Lymphangiogenesis has also been shown to be a key phenomenon in developmental biological processes, such as cell proliferation, guided migration, differentiation, and cell-to-cell communication, making lymphatic-specific visualization techniques highly desirable and desperately needed. Imaging modalities including immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization are limited by the need to sacrifice animal models for tissue harvesting at every experimental time point. Moreover, the processes of mounting and staining harvested tissues may introduce artifacts that can confound results. These traditional methods for investigating lymphatic and blood vasculature are associated with several problems including animal variability (e.g., between mice) when replicating lymphatic growth environments and the cost concerns of prolonged, labor-intensive studies, all of which complicate the study of dynamic lymphatic processes. With the discovery of lymphatic-specific markers, researchers have been able to develop several lymphatic and blood vessel-specific, promoter-driven, fluorescent-reporter transgenic mice for visualization of lymphatics in vivo and in vitro. For instance, GFP, mOrange, tdTomato, and other fluorescent proteins can be expressed under control of a lymphatic-specific marker like Prospero-related homeobox 1 (Prox1), which is a highly conserved transcription factor for determining embryonic organogenesis in vertebrates that is implicated in lymphangiogenesis as well as several human cancers. Importantly, Prox1-null mouse embryos develop without lymphatic vessels. In human adults, Prox1 maintains lymphatic endothelial cells and upregulates proteins associated with lymphangiogenesis (e.g., VEGFR-3) and downregulates angiogenesis-associated gene expression (e.g., STAT6). To visualize lymphatic development in the context of angiogenesis, dual fluorescent-transgenic reporters, like Prox1-GFP/Flt1-DsRed mice, have been bred to characterize lymphatic and blood vessels simultaneously in vivo. In this review, we discuss the trends in lymphatic visualization and the potential usage of transgenic breeds in hemangiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis research to understand spatial and temporal correlations between vascular development and pathological progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan J Doh
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Michael Yamakawa
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Samuel M Santosa
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Mario Montana
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Kai Guo
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Joseph R Sauer
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Nicholas Curran
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Kyu-Yeon Han
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Charles Yu
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Masatsugu Ema
- Department of Stem Cells and Human Disease Models, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan
| | - Mark I Rosenblatt
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Jin-Hong Chang
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | - Dimitri T Azar
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
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Metabolic shift in density-dependent stem cell differentiation. Cell Commun Signal 2017; 15:44. [PMID: 29052507 PMCID: PMC5649068 DOI: 10.1186/s12964-017-0173-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2016] [Accepted: 05/02/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Vascular progenitor cells (VPCs) derived from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are a valuable source for cell- and tissue-based therapeutic strategies. During the optimization of endothelial cell (EC) inductions from mouse ESCs using our staged and chemically-defined induction methods, we found that cell seeding density but not VEGF treatment between 10 ng/mL and 40 ng/mL was a significant variable directing ESCs into FLK1+ VPCs during stage 1 induction. Here, we examine potential contributions from cell-to-cell signaling or cellular metabolism in the production of VPCs from ESCs seeded at different cell densities. METHODS Using 1D 1H-NMR spectroscopy, transcriptomic arrays, and flow cytometry, we observed that the density-dependent differentiation of ESCs into FLK1+ VPCs positively correlated with a shift in metabolism and cellular growth. RESULTS Specifically, cell differentiation correlated with an earlier plateauing of exhaustive glycolysis, decreased lactate production, lower metabolite consumption, decreased cellular proliferation and an increase in cell size. In contrast, cells seeded at a lower density of 1,000 cells/cm2 exhibited increased rates of glycolysis, lactate secretion, metabolite utilization, and proliferation over the same induction period. Gene expression analysis indicated that high cell seeding density correlated with up-regulation of several genes including cell adhesion molecules of the notch family (NOTCH1 and NOTCH4) and cadherin family (CDH5) related to vascular development. CONCLUSIONS These results confirm that a distinct metabolic phenotype correlates with cell differentiation of VPCs.
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Glaser DE, Turner WS, Madfis N, Wong L, Zamora J, White N, Reyes S, Burns AB, Gopinathan A, McCloskey KE. Multifactorial Optimizations for Directing Endothelial Fate from Stem Cells. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0166663. [PMID: 27907001 PMCID: PMC5131944 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166663] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2016] [Accepted: 11/01/2016] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Embryonic stem cells (ESC) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are attractive in vitro models of vascular development, therapeutic angiogenesis, and tissue engineering. However, distinct ESC and iPS cell lines respond differentially to the same microenvironmental factors. Developing improved/optimized differentiation methodologies tailored/applicable in a number of distinct iPS and ESC lines remains a challenge in the field. Currently published methods for deriving endothelial cells (EC) robustly generate high numbers of endothlelial progenitor cells (EPC) within a week, but their maturation to definitive EC is much more difficult, taking up to 2 months and requiring additional purification. Therefore, we set out to examine combinations/levels of putative EC induction factors—utilizing our stage-specific chemically-defined derivation methodology in 4 ESC lines including: kinetics, cell seeding density, matrix signaling, as well as medium treatment with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). The results indicate that temporal development in both early and late stages is the most significant factor generating the desired cells. The generation of early Flk-1+/KDR+ vascular progenitor cells (VPC) from pluripotent ESC is directed predominantly by high cell seeding density and matrix signaling from fibronectin, while VEGF supplementation was NOT statistically significant in more than one cell line, especially with fibronectin matrix which sequesters autocrine VEGF production by the differentiating stem cells. Although some groups have shown that the GSK3-kinase inhibitor (CHIR) can facilitate EPC fate, it hindered the generation of KDR+ cells in our preoptimized medium formulations. The methods summarized here significantly increased the production of mature vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin+ EC, with up to 93% and 57% purity from mouse and human ESC, respectively, before VE-cadherin+ EC purification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drew E. Glaser
- School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, United States of America
- Graduate Program in Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technologies, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - William S. Turner
- School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - Nicole Madfis
- Graduate Program in Quantitative and Systems Biology, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - Lian Wong
- School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, United States of America
- Graduate Program in Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technologies, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - Jose Zamora
- Department of Physics, University of California, Merced, United States of America
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - Nicholas White
- School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - Samuel Reyes
- School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - Andrew B. Burns
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - Ajay Gopinathan
- Department of Physics, University of California, Merced, United States of America
| | - Kara E. McCloskey
- School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, United States of America
- Graduate Program in Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technologies, University of California, Merced, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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