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Sox17 drives functional engraftment of endothelium converted from nonvascular cells

ABSTRACT: Transplanting vascular endothelial cells (ECs) to support metabolism and express regenerative paracrine factors is a strategy to treat vasculopathies and to promote tissue regeneration. However, transplantation strategies have been challenging to develop because ECs are difficult to culture and little is known about how to sustain their vascular identity and direct them to form long-lasting new vessels or engraft into existing ones. We found that multiple non-vascular cell types transiently expressed EC markers after enforced expression of the transcription factors, Etv2, Erg, and Fli1. However, only mid-gestational amniotic cells could be converted to cells that maintained EC gene expression and proliferated in culture to yield billions of vascular cells. Even so, these converted cells performed sub-optimally in assays of EC function. We used constitutive Akt signaling to mimic the shear forces of the vascular environment and promote EC survival in an effort to correct the deficiencies of the converted cells. Akt signaling increased gene expression of EC morphogenesis genes, including Sox17, shifted the genomic targeting of Fli1 to favor nearby Sox consensus sites, and enhanced the in vivo vascular function of EC-like converted cells. Enforced expression of Sox17 was dispensable for broad EC gene activation, but indispensable for vascular engraftment and reperfusion of ischemic tissue. Our results identify a transcription factor network comprised of Ets and Sox17 factors that specifies and sustains endothelial cell fate and function. This work shows that the commonly used criterion of transcriptional similarity for cell conversion can fail to predict in vivo vascular function. Our approach shows that stringent functional testing in vitro and in vivo is necessary to validate engineered endothelial cell grafts.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE85642 | GEO | 2017/03/08

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA338985

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Although differentiation of mice embryonic stem cells into vascular endothelial cells (ECs) gives a model for investigating molecular mechanisms of vascular development in vivo, temporal dynamics of gene expressions and chromatin modifications have not been studied until now. Here, we interrogated transcriptome and two histone modifications, H3K4me3 and H3K27me3, with a genome-wide scale during ECs differentiation and elucidated epigenetic switch peculiar to ECs. We find Gata2, Fli1, Sox7, and Sox18 are master regulators from genetic and epigenetic data, these genes were induced after Etv2 activation. These genes have specific histone modification pattern which is repressed by H3K27me3 modification at Flk-sorted mesoderm and changed to the bivalent (H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 both positive) state rapidly after vascular endothelial cells growth factor (VEGF) stimuli. Using a previously reported ECs differentiation model, we demonstrate that four transcription factors are critical for ECs specific gene expressions and efficient differentiation. Moreover, from knockdown experiments using si-RNA, we discovered these factors inhibited not only TGFÎ² signaling pathway, that is endothelial mesenchymal transition pathway, but also other near lineage commitment, including blood cells, skeletal muscle cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, and cardiomyocytes. We further identify each factor specific target genes during ECs differentiation by microarray, including both activating and repressing genes. Together, our findings from a detailed epigenetic approach provide a basic understanding temporal regulated chromatin signatures and resulting gene expression profile during ECs commitment, which is applicable to other models of differentiation and production of mature and long lasting ECs for regenerative medicine. Total 17 samples were derived from [1] ES cells, Flk-sorted mesoderm cells, and in the absense or presence of VEGF (6, 12, 24, and 48h) to determine VEGF activated genes during endothelial cells differentiation, [2] control si-RNA, si-Gata2, si-Fli1, si-Sox7, or si-Sox18 transfected cells under VEGF stimuli, [3] control si-RNA or si-Mix (si-Gata2, si-Fli1, si-Sox7, and si-Sox18) transfected cells under VEGF stimuli for the identification of each transcription factor dependent genes during endothelial cells differentiation.

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Sox17 drives functional engraftment of endothelium converted from nonvascular cells

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