Endothelial cells during craniofacial development: Populating and patterning the head

Abstract

Major organs and tissues require close association with the vasculature during development and for later function. Blood vessels are essential for efficient gas exchange and for providing metabolic sustenance to individual cells, with endothelial cells forming the basic unit of this complex vascular framework. Recent research has revealed novel roles for endothelial cells in mediating tissue morphogenesis and differentiation during development, providing an instructive role to shape the tissues as they form. This highlights the importance of providing a vasculature when constructing tissues and organs for tissue engineering. Studies in various organ systems have identified important signalling pathways crucial for regulating the cross talk between endothelial cells and their environment. This review will focus on the origin and migration of craniofacial endothelial cells and how these cells influence the development of craniofacial tissues. For this we will look at research on the interaction with the cranial neural crest, and individual organs such as the salivary glands, teeth, and jaw. Additionally, we will investigate the methods used to understand and manipulate endothelial networks during the development of craniofacial tissues, highlighting recent advances in this area.

DeepFace: Deep-learning-based framework to contextualize orofacial-cleft-related variants during human embryonic craniofacial development

“…After formation, neural crest cells undergo a process known as the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, during which they detach from the uppermost part of the neural tube. 49 Recent studies 50 , 51 have revealed that endothelial cells and the vasculature play a pivotal role in guiding tissue morphogenesis and cell differentiation in various cranial structures. Additionally, genes from the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family have been observed in the mesenchyme surrounding Meckel’s cartilage.…”

Tracking cell layer contribution during repair of the tympanic membrane

“…the lamina propria) also contains the vasculature of the TM ( Mozaffari et al, 2020 ). The timing of the invasion of the vasculature was followed in Mesp1cre;tdTomato mice, where Mesp1 drives tdTomato expression in mesodermal derivatives, including endothelial cells ( Asrar and Tucker, 2022 ). In unperforated TMs, blood vessels were observed around the annulus and the manubrium, while the centre of the PT was devoid of vasculature ( Fig.…”

“…5 ). For this, CD31 was used to label endothelial cells ( Asrar and Tucker, 2022 ) and Wnt1cre;tdTomato to label the mesenchymal cells of the lamina propria. At 5 dpp ( Fig.…”