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Transmural pressure is a master regulator of airway branching morphogenesis

ABSTRACT: Mechanical forces are increasingly recognized to regulate morphogenesis, but how this is accomplished in the context of the multiple tissues present within a developing organ remains unclear. Here we use bioengineered “microfluidic chest cavities” to precisely control the mechanical environment of the fetal lung. We show that transmural pressure controls airway branching morphogenesis and regulates the frequency of airway smooth muscle contraction. Next-generation sequencing analysis shows that lungs held at higher pressure are more mature than lungs held at lower pressure. Timelapse imaging reveals that branching events are synchronized across distant locations within the lung, and are preceded by long-duration waves of airway smooth muscle contraction. Higher transmural pressure decreases the interval between systemic smooth muscle contractions and increases the rate of morphogenesis of the airway epithelium. These data reveal that the mechanical properties of the microenvironment instruct crosstalk between tissues to control the rate of development of the embryonic lung.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE90148 | GEO | 2017/11/07

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA354584

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are important in a number of physiological systems and organs, including the cardiovascular system. The hallmark property of differentiated SMCs is the ability to contract, but contractile SMCs themselves show a range of phenotypes allowing prolonged tonic contraction in vascular smooth muscle or rapid phasic contraction in tissues such as bladder. Another distinctive characteristic, in contrast with terminally differentiated striated muscle cells, is that SMCs exhibit phenotypic plasticity. Vascular SMCs are able to modulate their phenotype along a continuum between a contractile phenotype, characteristic of healthy blood vessels, and a more proliferative âsyntheticâ phenotype, so-named for the enhanced synthesis and secretion of extracellular matrix components. Synthetic phenotype cells are found in a number of pathological situations such as atherosclerosis and arterial injury. We used mouse exon-junction (MJAY) arrays to gain insights into both the global contribution of alternative splicing events in re-shaping the transcriptome of dedifferentiating mouse aorta and bladder SMCs, and into the underlying regulatory mechanisms of the alternative splicing program. Affymetrix splice junction arrays (MJAY) were used to profile changes in both alternative splicing and transcript levels during the phenotypic modulation of smooth muscle cells when placed in culture. RNA extracted from intact aorta and bladder smooth muscle tissue was used for differentiated samples. For dedifferentiated, proliferative samples smooth muscle cells were enzymatically dispersed and grown in tissue culture for a week. Triplicate RNA samples were prepared from smooth muscle tissue of mouse aorta and bladder (differentiated) and from smooth muscle cells from each tissue cultured for 7 days (proliferative). The samples allowed comparison of alternative splicing (and other transcriptome) changes between differentiated and proliferative smooth muscle cell samples from two distinct types of smooth muscle cell, as well as allowing direct comparison of aorta (tonic smooth muscle) and bladder (phasic smooth muscle).

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Transmural pressure is a master regulator of airway branching morphogenesis

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