Vascular mimicry in zebrafish fin regeneration: how macrophages build new blood vessels.

ABSTRACT: Vascular mimicry has been thoroughly investigated in tumor angiogenesis. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that a process closely resembling tumor vascular mimicry is present during physiological blood vessel formation in tissue regeneration using the zebrafish fin regeneration assay. At the fin-regenerating front, vasculature is formed by mosaic blood vessels with endothelial-like cells possessing the morphological phenotype of a macrophage and co-expressing both endothelial and macrophage markers within single cells. Our data demonstrate that the vascular segments of the regenerating tissue expand, in part, through the transformation of adjacent macrophages into endothelial-like cells, forming functional, perfused channels and contributing to the de novo formation of micro

SUBMITTER: Senk A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11303510 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature