Global gene expression differences between blood- and lymphatic-specific endothelial colony forming cells
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ABSTRACT: The identification of circulating endothelial progenitor cells has led to speculation regarding their origin as well as their contribution to neovascular development. Two distinct types of endothelium make up the blood and lymphatic vessel system. However, it has yet to be determined whether there are distinct lymphatic-specific circulating endothelial progenitor cells. We isolated circulating endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) from whole peripheral blood. These cells are endothelial in nature, as defined by their expression of endothelial markers and their ability to undergo capillary morphogenesis in three-dimensional culture. A subset of isolated colonies express markers of lymphatic endothelium, including VEGFR-3 and Prox-1, with low levels of VEGFR-1, a blood endothelial marker, while the bulk of the isolated cells express high VEGFR-1 levels with low VEGFR-3 and Prox-1 expression. The different isolates have differential responses to VEGF-C, a lymphatic endothelial specific cytokine, strongly suggesting that there are lymphatic specific and blood specific ECFCs. Global analysis of gene expression revealed key differences in the regulation of pathways involved in cellular differentiation between blood and lymphatic-specific ECFCs. These data indicate that there are two distinguishable circulating ECFC types, blood and lymphatic, which are likely to have discrete functions during neovascularization. RNA was isolated from 2 blood-specific ECFC cell lines and 2 lymphatic-specific ECFC cell lines 3 separate times each
Project description:The identification of circulating endothelial progenitor cells has led to speculation regarding their origin as well as their contribution to neovascular development. Two distinct types of endothelium make up the blood and lymphatic vessel system. However, it has yet to be determined whether there are distinct lymphatic-specific circulating endothelial progenitor cells. We isolated circulating endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) from whole peripheral blood. These cells are endothelial in nature, as defined by their expression of endothelial markers and their ability to undergo capillary morphogenesis in three-dimensional culture. A subset of isolated colonies express markers of lymphatic endothelium, including VEGFR-3 and Prox-1, with low levels of VEGFR-1, a blood endothelial marker, while the bulk of the isolated cells express high VEGFR-1 levels with low VEGFR-3 and Prox-1 expression. The different isolates have differential responses to VEGF-C, a lymphatic endothelial specific cytokine, strongly suggesting that there are lymphatic specific and blood specific ECFCs. Global analysis of gene expression revealed key differences in the regulation of pathways involved in cellular differentiation between blood and lymphatic-specific ECFCs. These data indicate that there are two distinguishable circulating ECFC types, blood and lymphatic, which are likely to have discrete functions during neovascularization.
Project description:We performed high throughput RNA-sequencing on blood and lymphatic HMVECs to identify differences in gene expression between these two cell types that may provide insight into their respective differentiation and roles in angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. RNA was isolated from blood-specific HMVEC and lymphatic-specific HMVEC cell lines 3 separate times each
Project description:Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are circulating endothelial precursors shown to incorporate into foci of neovascularisation. Herein, we describe phenotypic characteristics of an EPC sub-type called endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs). Peripheral blood-isolated ECFCs expressed endothelial and progenitor surface antigens and displayed cobblestone-patterned colonies with clonal proliferative and angiogenic capacities in vitro. ECFCs demonstrated endothelial cell-like shear stress responses including cell alignment and PECAM-1 expression. Proteomic comparison with an endothelial reference population (human umbilical vein endothelial cells) confirmed a similar proteomic profile. Hierarchical clustering revealed two distinct ECFC clusters with differences in cell growth, proliferation and angiogenesis capacities. The cluster with compromised functionality was also associated with elevated blood pressure and impaired lipid profile. Our findings described an endothelial-like phenotype of blood-derived ECFCs with distinctive proteomic signatures based on cellular and clinical characteristics. ECFCs may aid in identifying novel mechanisms associated with cardiovascular disease risk and new targets to enhance angiogenesis.
Project description:In contrast to the migration of leukocytes from blood vessels into tissues, and the involvement of adhesion molecules and chemokines in this process, the migration of leukocytes from the tissue into lymphatic vessels is much less well understood. This can, in part be explained by the fact that murine lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) have proven particularly hard to isolate and propagate in culture. Hence, it has been difficult to establish suitable models to study this process in vitro. Combining magnetic bead-based purification and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), we have isolated LECs (immorto-LECs) from the skin of mice which express a temperature-sensitive SV40 large T antigen (H-2Kb-tsA58 mice; ImmortoMice) in all cell types under the control of the MHC-class-I-promotor, H-2Kb. The isolated cells are viable for more than 30 passages when cultured at 33 M-BM-:C, the temperature at which the large T antigen is stably expressed. Furthermore, immorto-LECs tolerate several days of culture at 37 M-BM-:C, but become senescent if continuously cultured at this temperature. All cells stably express endothelial and lymphatic markers like CD31, podoplanin, Prox-1 and VEGFR-3 up to passage 30. When cultured in presence of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a), immorto-LECs upregulate adhesion molecules, such as ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and E-selectin, similarly to what has been reported to occur under inflammatory conditions in vivo. Overall, our findings establish immorto-LECs as a useful and handy tool for the in vitro investigation of immune cell transmigration across lymphatic endothelium. imLEC were cultured at 33 M-BM-:C until they reached approx. 70% confluence. Cells were then transferred to 37 M-BM-:C and cultured for 3 days in order to induce T antigen degradation. RNA was isolated from 3 different cultures of passages 13, 14 and 18
Project description:Untargeted proteomics dataset of human dermal blood endothelial cells (HDBECs), human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), human dermal lymphatic endothelial cells (HDLECs) and intestinal lymphatic endothelial cells (iLECs) in proliferation and quiescence.
Project description:Intra- and extracellular metabolomics dataset of human dermal blood endothelial cells (HDBECs), human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), human dermal lymphatic endothelial cells (HDLECs) and intestinal lymphatic endothelial cells (iLECs) in proliferation and quiescence.
Project description:In contrast to the migration of leukocytes from blood vessels into tissues, and the involvement of adhesion molecules and chemokines in this process, the migration of leukocytes from the tissue into lymphatic vessels is much less well understood. This can, in part be explained by the fact that murine lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) have proven particularly hard to isolate and propagate in culture. Hence, it has been difficult to establish suitable models to study this process in vitro. Combining magnetic bead-based purification and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), we have isolated LECs (immorto-LECs) from the skin of mice which express a temperature-sensitive SV40 large T antigen (H-2Kb-tsA58 mice; ImmortoMice) in all cell types under the control of the MHC-class-I-promotor, H-2Kb. The isolated cells are viable for more than 30 passages when cultured at 33 ºC, the temperature at which the large T antigen is stably expressed. Furthermore, immorto-LECs tolerate several days of culture at 37 ºC, but become senescent if continuously cultured at this temperature. All cells stably express endothelial and lymphatic markers like CD31, podoplanin, Prox-1 and VEGFR-3 up to passage 30. When cultured in presence of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a), immorto-LECs upregulate adhesion molecules, such as ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and E-selectin, similarly to what has been reported to occur under inflammatory conditions in vivo. Overall, our findings establish immorto-LECs as a useful and handy tool for the in vitro investigation of immune cell transmigration across lymphatic endothelium.
Project description:The term placenta is a highly vascularized tissue and is usually discarded upon birth. Our objective was to isolate clinically relevant quantities of fetal endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) from human term placenta and to compare them to the well-established donor-matched umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived ECFCs. A sorting strategy was devised to enrich for CD45-CD34+CD31Lo cells prior to primary plating to obtain pure placental ECFCs (PL-ECFCs) upon culture. UCB-ECFCs were derived using a well-described assay. PL-ECFCs were fetal in origin and expressed the same cell surface markers as UCB-ECFCs. Most importantly, a single term placenta could yield as many ECFCs as 27 UCB donors. PL-ECFCs and UCB-ECFCs had similar in vitro and in vivo vessel forming capacities and restored mouse hind limb ischemia in similar proportions. Gene expression profiles were only minimally divergent between PL-ECFCs and UCB-ECFCs, probably reflecting a vascular source versus a circulating source. Finally, PL-ECFCs and UCB-ECFCs displayed similar hierarchies between high and low proliferative colonies. We report a robust strategy to isolate ECFCs from human term placentas based on their cell surface expression. This yielded much larger quantities of ECFCs than UCB, but the cells were comparable in immunophenotype, gene expression, and in vivo functional ability. We conclude that PL-ECFCs have significant bio-banking and clinical translatability potential. Data has been integrated into the Stemformatics web resource http://www.stemformatics.org/datasets/view/6306
Project description:Derivation and expansion of human umbilical cord blood-derived endothelial colony forming cells under serum-free conditions - a transcriptome analysis. Endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) were isolated from term umbilical cord blood units. ECFCs were expanded under standard, fetal bovine serum (FBS) containing endothelial medium, or transferred to chemically defined endothelial media without FBS. Microarray expression profiling was applied to compare the transcriptome profiles in FBS-containing versus FBS-free culture. Comparison of the expression patterns of ECFCs that were either cultured in FBS-containing medium or in serum-free medium (five replicates each).
Project description:miRNA profiling was carried out using the miRCURY LNA™ microRNA Array (5th gen - hsa, mmu & rno). microRNA profiling of CB and PB-derived ECFCs from 3 independent donors from each cell source. To identify and understand the regulation of endothelial cell functions through comparing miRNA expression profiling of cord blood (CB) derived endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) and peripheral blood (PB) ECFCs