1. Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. doi:10.1038/nrgastro.2017.79
Figure 3 Molecular mechanisms of intestinal lymphatic development and remodelling
Figure 3 | Molecular mechanisms of intestinal lymphatic development and remodelling. a | Maintenance of adult lacteals relies on VEGFC and DLL4 signalling. VEGFC is expressed in villus smooth muscle cells (SMCs; red) and arterioles (not shown here). b | Global inducible deletion of either Vegfc (blue villus SMCs) or Vegfr3, or inhibition of VEGFC–VEGFR3 signalling by antibody blockade results in shortening of lacteals. c | DLL4 expression, which is dependent on VEGFR2–VEGFR3 signalling, is necessary for lacteal length maintenance and inducible lymphatic-specific Dll4 ablation leads to lacteal attrition. d | Intestinal lymphatic vessels have multiple developmental origins. Venous-derived lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) form the mesenteric lymph sac from which LECs migrate towards the intestine starting at embryonic day 13 (E13). Another population of LECs derived from PDGFB+ and cKIT+ haemogenic endothelium (HaemEC-derived LECs) appear on the intestinal mesentery at a similar time point. LECs migrate and form submucosal vessels and start sprouting into villi after E15. By postnatal day 10 (P10), most villi contain mature lacteals.
Bernier-Latmani, J. & Petrova, T. V. (2017) Intestinal lymphatic vasculature: structure, mechanisms and functions
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