David Gortler - Control of Blood Vessel Identity: From Embryo to Adult

Control of Blood Vessel Identity: From Embryo to Adult
Tiffany T Fancher1)3)4), Akihito Muto1)3), Tamara N Fitzgerald1)3), Dania Magri1)3), David Gortler2), Toshiya Nishibe5) and Alan Dardik1)3)6)
1) Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
2) Department of Pharmacology, Yale University School of Medicine
3) Department of Interdepartmental Program in Vascular Biology and Therapeutics, Yale University School of Medicine
4) Saint Mary's Health System
5) Fujita Health University
6) VA Connecticut Healthcare System

(Received July 21, 2007)
(Accepted for publication January 25, 2008)

Abstract: Arteries and veins have been historically defined by the direction of blood flow and oxygen tension within the vessel, in addition to their functional, hemodynamic, and anatomical differences. It is now known that the molecular identity of these vessels is genetically predetermined, with specific molecular pathways acti-vated during the development of arteries and veins. Eph-B4 is a determinant of venous differentiation and Ephrin-B2 is a determinant of arterial differentiation. Placement of a vein into the higher pressure and flow of the arterial circulation results in adaptation of the vein to the arterial environment. There is selec-tive loss of Eph-B4 expression without induction of Ephrin-B2 expression during vein graft adaptation. These findings suggest that loss of venous identity is the crucial mechanism in vein graft adaptation and that developmentally critical determinants of vessel identity are plastic during adult life.
Key words: arterialization, Notch, Ephrin-B2, Eph-B4, venous identity



Reference the full article at
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/avd/1/1/28/_pdf

David Gortler, Pharm.D. FCCP, Yale School of Medicine
Prof. David Gortler, Yale University, Dept. of Pharmacology