Peri-arterial specification of vascular mural cells from naive mesenchyme requires Notch signaling

• Mural cells (MCs) are essential for blood vessel stability and function; however, the mechanisms that regulate MC development remain incompletely understood, in particular those involved in MC specification. Here, we investigated the first steps of MC formation in zebrafish using transgenic reporters. Using pdgfrb and abcc9 reporters, we show that the onset of expression of abcc9, a pericyte marker in adult mice and zebrafish, occurs almost coincidentally with an increment in pdgfrb expression in peri-arterial mesenchymal cells, suggesting that these transcriptional changes mark the specification of MC lineage cells from naive pdgfrb(low) mesenchymal cells. The emergence of peri-arterial pdgfrb(high) MCs required Notch signaling. We found that pdgfrb-positive cells express notch2 in addition to notch3, and although depletion of notch2 or notch3 failed to block MC emergence, embryos depleted of both notch2 and notch3 lost mesoderm- as well as neural crest-derived pdgfrb(high) MCs. Using reporters that read out Notch signaling and Notch2 receptor cleavage, we show that Notch activation in the mesenchyme precedes specification into pdgfrb(high) MCs. Taken together, these results show that Notch signaling is necessary for peri-arterial MC specification.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper -- Cell- och molekylärbiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Basic Medicine -- Cell and Molecular Biology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Utvecklingsbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Developmental Biology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Mural cells

Pericytes

Vascular smooth muscle cells

Zebrafish

Notch

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