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Unsuspected role for the T-cell leukemia protein SCL/tal-1 in vascular development
J E Visvader1, Y Fujiwara, S H Orkin
1Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Center, Department of Pediatrics, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Abstract:
The transcription factor SCL/tal-1 is essential for blood cell development. Though it is also expressed in vascular endothelium, SCL has been considered dispensable for vessel formation. Through transgenic rescue of hematopoietic defects of SCL-/- embryos and analysis of chimeras generated with SCL-/- ES cells tagged with a transgene expressed in vascular endothelial cells, we show that SCL is essential for angiogenic remodeling of the yolk sac capillary network into complex vitelline vessels. These findings establish a role for SCL in embryonic angiogenesis and argue for critical functions in both embryonic blood and vascular cells, the descendents of the presumptive hemangioblast.