vascular-casting-adult-early-postnatal-mouse-lungs-for-micro-ct

Vascular Casting of Adult and Early Postnatal Mouse Lungs for Micro-CT Imaging

Blood vessels form intricate networks in 3-dimensional space. Consequently, it is difficult to visually appreciate how vascular networks interact and ...

National Institutes of Health

Increased vascular stiffness correlates with a higher risk of cardiovascular complications in aging adults. Elastin (ELN) insufficiency, as observed in patients with Williams-Beuren syndrome or with familial supravalvular aortic stenosis, also increases vascular stiffness and leads to arterial narrowing. We used Eln mice to test the hypothesis that pathologically increased vascular stiffness with concomitant arterial narrowing leads to decreased blood flow to end organs such as the brain. We also hypothesized that drugs that remodel arteries and increase lumen diameter would improve flow. To test these hypotheses, we compared carotid blood flow using ultrasound and cerebral blood flow using MRI-based arterial spin labeling in wild-type (WT) and Eln mice. We then studied how minoxidil, an ATP-sensitive K channel opener and vasodilator, affects vessel mechanics, blood flow, and gene expression. Both carotid and cerebral blood flows were lower in Eln mice than in WT mice. Treatment of Eln mice with minoxidil lowered blood pressure and reduced functional arterial stiffness to WT levels. Minoxidil also improved arterial diameter and restored carotid and cerebral blood flows in Eln mice. The beneficial effects persisted for weeks after drug removal. RNA-Seq analysis revealed differential expression of 127 extracellular matrix-related genes among the treatment groups. These results indicate that ELN insufficiency impairs end-organ perfusion, which may contribute to the increased cardiovascular risk. Minoxidil, despite lowering blood pressure, improves end-organ perfusion. Changes in matrix gene expression and persistence of treatment effects after drug withdrawal suggest arterial remodeling. Such remodeling may benefit patients with genetic or age-dependent ELN insufficiency. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our work with a model of chronic vascular stiffness, the elastin ( Eln) mouse, shows reduced brain perfusion as measured by carotid ultrasound and MRI arterial spin labeling. Vessel caliber, functional stiffness, and blood flow improved with minoxidil. The ATP-sensitive K channel opener increased Eln gene expression and altered 126 other matrix-associated genes.

Minoxidil improves vascular compliance, restores cerebral blood flow, and alters extracellular matrix gene expression in a model of chronic vascular stiffness.

To investigate the effect of somatic, postzygotic, gain-of-function mutation of Endothelial Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS) domain protein 1 () encoding hypoxia-inducible factor-2α (HIF-2α) on posterior fossa development and spinal dysraphism in  gain-of-function syndrome, which consists of multiple paragangliomas, somatostatinoma, and polycythemia.

Neuraxial dysraphism in associated syndrome due to improper mesenchymal transition.

Supravalvular aortic stenosis (SVAS) is a narrowing of the aorta caused by elastin (ELN) haploinsufficiency. SVAS severity varies among patients with Williams Beuren syndrome (WBS), a rare disorder that removes one copy of ELN and 25-27 other genes. Twenty percent of children with WBS require one or more invasive and often risky procedures to correct the defect while 30% have no appreciable stenosis, despite sharing the same basic genetic lesion. There is no known medical therapy. Consequently, identifying genes that modify SVAS offers the potential for novel modifier-based therapeutics. To improve statistical power in our rare-disease cohort (N = 104 exomes), we utilized extreme-phenotype cohorting, functional variant filtration, and pathway-based analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis of exome-wide association data identified increased adaptive immune system variant burden among genes associated with SVAS severity. Additional enrichment, using only potentially pathogenic variants known to differ in frequency between the extreme phenotype subsets, identified significant association of SVAS severity with not only immune pathway genes, but also genes involved with the extracellular matrix, G protein-coupled receptor signaling, and lipid metabolism using both SKAT-O and RQTest. Complementary studies in Eln+/-; Rag1-/- mice, which lack a functional adaptive immune system, showed improvement in cardiovascular features of elastin insufficiency. Similarly, studies in mixed background Eln+/- mice confirmed that variations in genes that increase elastic fiber deposition also had positive impact on aortic caliber. By using tools to improve statistical power in combination with orthogonal analyses in mice, we detected four main pathways that contribute to SVAS risk.

Whole exome sequencing in patients with Williams-Beuren syndrome followed by disease modeling in mice points to four novel pathways that may modify stenosis risk.

Article	Year
Minoxidil improves vascular compliance, restores cerebral blood flow, and alters extracellular matrix gene expression in a model of chronic vascular stiffness. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology\| PubMed ID: 29498532	2018
Neuraxial dysraphism in associated syndrome due to improper mesenchymal transition. Neurology. Genetics\| PubMed ID: 32337341	2020
Whole exome sequencing in patients with Williams-Beuren syndrome followed by disease modeling in mice points to four novel pathways that may modify stenosis risk. Human molecular genetics\| PubMed ID: 32412588	2020

Russell H. Knutsen

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