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Mesodermal expression of integrin α5β1 regulates neural crest development and cardiovascular morphogenesis

Dong Liang1, Xia Wang1, Ashok Mittal1

  • 1Thomas Jefferson University, Department of Medicine, Center for Translational Medicine, 1020 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.

Developmental Biology
|September 23, 2014
PubMed

Insights

Integrin α5β1 in mesoderm is crucial for neural crest development and cardiovascular morphogenesis. Ablating it causes severe embryonic defects, including heart and aortic arch abnormalities.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Biology
  • Cell Biology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Integrins are essential cell surface receptors mediating cell-matrix and cell-cell interactions.
  • Integrin α5β1 plays a role in various developmental processes, but its specific function in early cardiovascular development is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of integrin α5β1 in cardiovascular development using a conditional knockout mouse model.
  • To determine the impact of ablating integrin α5 in the anterior mesoderm on neural crest and cardiovascular morphogenesis.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized Mesp1(Cre) knock-in mice to conditionally ablate integrin α5 in the anterior mesoderm.
  • Analyzed embryonic phenotypes, focusing on cardiovascular and neural crest development.

Main Results:

  • Mesp1-driven ablation of integrin α5 resulted in mid-gestation embryonic lethality due to severe cardiovascular defects.
  • Mutant embryos exhibited neural crest abnormalities, including cleft palate, ventricular septal defects, and defective aortic arch artery remodeling.
  • Defects in aortic arch artery remodeling were linked to impaired neural crest cell proliferation and differentiation into vascular smooth muscle cells.

Conclusions:

  • Mesodermal integrin α5β1 is essential for proper neural crest development and subsequent cardiovascular morphogenesis.
  • Integrin α5β1 mediates critical signaling between mesoderm and neural crest, regulating neural crest-dependent embryonic structure formation.

Keywords:
Aortic arch artery developmentIntegrin alpha5MesodermNeural crest

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