Competition for endothelial cell polarity drives vascular morphogenesis in the mouse retina.

Blood-vessel formation generates unique vascular patterns in each individual. The principles governing the apparent stochasticity of this process remain to be elucidated. Using mathematical methods, we find that the transition between two fundamental vascular morphogenetic programs-sprouting angiogenesis and vascular remodeling-is established by a shift of collective front-to-rear polarity of endothelial cells in the mouse retina. We demonstrate that the competition between biochemical (VEGFA) and mechanical (blood-flow-induced shear stress) cues controls this collective polarity shift. Shear stress increases tension at focal adhesions overriding VEGFA-driven collective polarization, which relies on tension at adherens junctions. We propose that vascular morphogenetic cues compete to regulate individual cell polarity and migration through tension shifts that translates into tissue-level emergent behaviors, ultimately leading to uniquely organized vascular patterns.

Endothelial cell invasion is controlled by dactylopodia.

Sprouting angiogenesis is fundamental for development and contributes to cancer, diabetic retinopathy, and cardiovascular diseases. Sprouting angiogenesis depends on the invasive properties of endothelial tip cells. However, there is very limited knowledge on how tip cells invade into tissues. Here, we show that endothelial tip cells use dactylopodia as the main cellular protrusion for invasion into nonvascular extracellular matrix. We show that dactylopodia and filopodia protrusions are balanced by myosin IIA (NMIIA) and actin-related protein 2/3 (Arp2/3) activity. Endothelial cell-autonomous ablation of NMIIA promotes excessive dactylopodia formation in detriment of filopodia. Conversely, endothelial cell-autonomous ablation of Arp2/3 prevents dactylopodia development and leads to excessive filopodia formation. We further show that NMIIA inhibits Rac1-dependent activation of Arp2/3 by regulating the maturation state of focal adhesions. Our discoveries establish a comprehensive model of how endothelial tip cells regulate its protrusive activity and will pave the way toward strategies to block invasive tip cells during sprouting angiogenesis.

Endothelial cells on the move: dynamics in vascular morphogenesis and disease.

The vascular system is a hierarchically organized network of blood vessels that play crucial roles in embryogenesis, homeostasis and disease. Blood vessels are built by endothelial cells - the cells lining the interior of blood vessels - through a process named vascular morphogenesis. Endothelial cells react to different biomechanical signals in their environment by adjusting their behavior to: (1) invade, proliferate and fuse to form new vessels (angiogenesis); (2) remodel, regress and establish a hierarchy in the network (patterning); and (3) maintain network stability (quiescence). Each step involves the coordination of endothelial cell differentiation, proliferation, polarity, migration, rearrangements and shape changes to ensure network integrity and an efficient barrier between blood and tissues. In this review, we highlighted the relevance and the mechanisms involving endothelial cell migration during different steps of vascular morphogenesis. We further present evidence on how impaired endothelial cell dynamics can contribute to pathology.

Non-canonical Wnt signaling regulates junctional mechanocoupling during angiogenic collective cell migration.

Morphogenesis of hierarchical vascular networks depends on the integration of multiple biomechanical signals by endothelial cells, the cells lining the interior of blood vessels. Expansion of vascular networks arises through sprouting angiogenesis, a process involving extensive cell rearrangements and collective cell migration. Yet, the mechanisms controlling angiogenic collective behavior remain poorly understood. Here, we show this collective cell behavior is regulated by non-canonical Wnt signaling. We identify that Wnt5a specifically activates Cdc42 at cell junctions downstream of ROR2 to reinforce coupling between adherens junctions and the actin cytoskeleton. We show that Wnt5a signaling stabilizes vinculin binding to alpha-catenin, and abrogation of vinculin in vivo and in vitro leads to uncoordinated polarity and deficient sprouting angiogenesis in Mus musculus. Our findings highlight how non-canonical Wnt signaling coordinates collective cell behavior during vascular morphogenesis by fine-tuning junctional mechanocoupling between endothelial cells.

GNrep mouse: A reporter mouse for front-rear cell polarity.

Cell migration is essential during development, regeneration, homeostasis, and disease. Depending on the microenvironment, cells use different mechanisms to migrate. Yet, all modes of migration require the establishment of an intracellular front-rear polarity axis for directional movement. Although front-rear polarity can be easily identified in in vitro conditions, its assessment in vivo by live-imaging is challenging due to tissue complexity and lack of reliable markers. Here, we describe a novel and unique double fluorescent reporter mouse line to study front-rear cell polarity in living tissues, called GNrep. This mouse line simultaneously labels Golgi complexes and nuclei allowing the assignment of a nucleus-to-Golgi axis to each cell, which functions as a readout for cell front-rear polarity. As a proof-of-principle, we validated the efficiency of the GNrep line using an endothelial-specific Cre mouse line. We show that the GNrep labels the nucleus and the Golgi apparatus of endothelial cells with very high efficiency and high specificity. Importantly, the features of fluorescent intensity and localization for both mCherry and eGFP fluorescent intensity and localization allow automated segmentation and assignment of polarity vectors in complex tissues, making GNrep a great tool to study cell behavior in large-scale automated analyses. Altogether, the GNrep mouse line, in combination with different Cre recombinase lines, is a novel and unique tool to study of front-rear polarity in mice, both in fixed tissues or in intravital live imaging. This new line will be instrumental to understand cell migration and polarity in development, homeostasis, and disease.

PAR-3 controls endothelial planar polarity and vascular inflammation under laminar flow.

Impaired cell polarity is a hallmark of diseased tissue. In the cardiovascular system, laminar blood flow induces endothelial planar cell polarity, represented by elongated cell shape and asymmetric distribution of intracellular organelles along the axis of blood flow. Disrupted endothelial planar polarity is considered to be pro-inflammatory, suggesting that the establishment of endothelial polarity elicits an anti-inflammatory response. However, a causative relationship between polarity and inflammatory responses has not been firmly established. Here, we find that a cell polarity protein, PAR-3, is an essential gatekeeper of GSK3ß activity in response to laminar blood flow. We show that flow-induced spatial distribution of PAR-3/aPKCλ and aPKCλ/GSK3ß complexes controls local GSK3ß activity and thereby regulates endothelial planar polarity. The spatial information for GSK3ß activation is essential for flow-dependent polarity to the flow axis, but is not necessary for flow-induced anti-inflammatory response. Our results shed light on a novel relationship between endothelial polarity and vascular homeostasis highlighting avenues for novel therapeutic strategies.

Endothelial cell dynamics in vascular remodelling.

In this ESCHM 2016 conference talk report, we summarise two recently published original articles Franco et al. PLoS Biology 2015 and Franco et al. eLIFE 2016. The vascular network undergoes extensive vessel remodelling to become fully functional. Is it well established that blood flow is a main driver for vascular remodelling. It has also been proposed that vessel pruning is a central process within physiological vessel remodelling. However, despite its central function, the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating vessel regression, and their interaction with blood flow patterns, remain largely unexplained. We investigated the cellular process governing developmental vascular remodelling in mouse and zebrafish. We established that polarised reorganization of endothelial cells is at the core of vessel regression, representing vessel anastomosis in reverse. Moreover, we established for the first time an axial polarity map for all endothelial cells together with an in silico method for the computation of the haemodynamic forces in the murine retinal vasculature. Using network-level analysis and microfluidics, we showed that endothelial non-canonical Wnt signalling regulates endothelial sensitivity to shear forces. Loss of Wnt5a/11 renders endothelial cells more sensitive to shear, resulting in axial polarisation at lower shear stress levels. Collectively our data suggest that non-canonical Wnt signalling stabilizes forming vascular networks by reducing endothelial shear sensitivity, thus keeping vessels open under low flow conditions that prevail in the primitive plexus.

Non-canonical Wnt signalling modulates the endothelial shear stress flow sensor in vascular remodelling.

Endothelial cells respond to molecular and physical forces in development and vascular homeostasis. Deregulation of endothelial responses to flow-induced shear is believed to contribute to many aspects of cardiovascular diseases including atherosclerosis. However, how molecular signals and shear-mediated physical forces integrate to regulate vascular patterning is poorly understood. Here we show that endothelial non-canonical Wnt signalling regulates endothelial sensitivity to shear forces. Loss of Wnt5a/Wnt11 renders endothelial cells more sensitive to shear, resulting in axial polarization and migration against flow at lower shear levels. Integration of flow modelling and polarity analysis in entire vascular networks demonstrates that polarization against flow is achieved differentially in artery, vein, capillaries and the primitive sprouting front. Collectively our data suggest that non-canonical Wnt signalling stabilizes forming vascular networks by reducing endothelial shear sensitivity, thus keeping vessels open under low flow conditions that prevail in the primitive plexus.