ETS transcription factor Etsrp / Etv2 is required for lymphangiogenesis and directly regulates vegfr3 / flt4 expression

Developmental biology

Jennifer A. Davis^1¹  Allison Lubert^1²  Fang Liu^3³  Andrew L. Koenig^2,1⁴  Brendan Chestnut^2⁵ 

[1] Cancer&Blood Disease Institute, Division of Oncology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA^1;Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA^3;Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA^5;Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA^2;Graduate School of Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University, Yong In, South Korea^4

关键词: ETS transcription factors;    Etv2;    Lymphangiogenesis;    Lymphatics;    Thoracic duct;    Zebrafish;    Vegfc;    Vegfr3;    Flt4;    Etsrp;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.ydbio.2018.05.003

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Academic Press

【 摘 要 】

The molecular mechanisms initiating the formation of the lymphatic system, lymphangiogenesis, are still poorly understood. Here we have identified a novel role in lymphangiogenesis for an ETS transcription factor, Etv2/Etsrp, a known regulator of embryonic vascular development. Through the use of fully validated photoactivatable morpholinos we show that inducible Etv2 inhibition in zebrafish embryos at 1 day post-fertilization (dpf) results in significant inhibition of lymphangiogenesis, while development of blood vessels is unaffected. In Etv2-inhibited embryos and larvae, the number of lymphatic progenitors is greatly reduced, the major lymphatic vessel, the thoracic duct, is absent or severely fragmented, and lymphangiogenesis-associated marker expression, including lyve1b, prox1a, and vegfr3/flt4, is strongly downregulated. We also demonstrate that lymphatic progenitors in Etv2 deficient embryos fail to respond to Vegfc signaling. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ChIP-Seq) studies using differentiated mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells as well as luciferase reporter studies in the ES cells and in zebrafish embryos argue that Etv2 directly binds the promoter/enhancer regions of Vegfc receptor Vegfr3/Flt4 and lymphatic marker Lyve1, and promotes their expression. Together these data support a model where Etv2 initiates lymphangiogenesis by directly promoting the expression of flt4 within the posterior cardinal vein.

【 授权许可】

CC BY