Rapid remodeling of airway vascular architecture at birth.
Recent advances have documented the development of lung vasculature before and after birth, but less is known of the growth and maturation of airway vasculature. We sought to determine whether airway vasculature changes during the perinatal period and when the typical adult pattern develops. On embryonic day 16.5 mouse tracheas had a primitive vascular plexus unlike the adult airway vasculature, but instead resembling the yolk sac vasculature. Soon after birth (P0), the primitive vascular plexus underwent abrupt and extensive remodeling. Blood vessels overlying tracheal cartilage rings regressed from P1 to P3 but regrew from P4 to P7 to form the hierarchical, segmented, ladder-like adult pattern. Hypoxia and HIF-1α were present in tracheal epithelium over vessels that survived but not where they regressed. These findings reveal the plasticity of airway vasculature after birth and show that these vessels can be used to elucidate factors that promote postnatal vascular remodeling and maturation.
Ni
Amy
A
Cardiovascular Research Institute, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
Lashnits
Erin
E
Yao
Li-Chin
LC
Baluk
Peter
P
McDonald
Donald M
DM
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000378:metabolism; D051795:Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit / Q000378:metabolism; D008168:Lung / Q000098:blood supply / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D040301:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors
D051795:Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit; D040301:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2