Notch3 is required for arterial identity and maturation of vascular smooth muscle cells.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2004

Keywords

Blood-Flow-Velocity, Blood-Pressure, Cell-Differentiation, Cells-Cultured, Desmin, Endothelial-Cells, Homozygote, Humans, In-Situ-Hybridization, Lac-Operon, Mice-Knockout, Mice-Transgenic, Microfilament-Proteins, Muscle-Proteins, Muscle-Smooth-Vascular, Myocytes-Smooth-Muscle, Proto-Oncogene-Proteins, Receptors-Cell-Surface

First Page

2730

Last Page

2735

JAX Source

Genes Dev 2004 Nov; 18(22):2730-5.

Abstract

Formation of a fully functional artery proceeds through a multistep process. Here we show that Notch3 is required to generate functional arteries in mice by regulating arterial differentiation and maturation of vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMC). In adult Notch3-/- mice distal arteries exhibit structural defects and arterial myogenic responses are defective. The postnatal maturation stage of vSMC is deficient in Notch3-/- mice. We further show that Notch3 is required for arterial specification of vSMC but not of endothelial cells. Our data reveal Notch3 to be the first cell-autonomous regulator of arterial differentiation and maturation of vSMC.

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