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Minetaro Ogawa

Publications and source records attributed to Minetaro Ogawa.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Endothelial cell motility is compatible with junctional integrity.

Confluent endothelial cells in culture are generally regarded as a model of resting endothelium in blood vessels (i.e., forming junctions at points of cell-cell contact, losing ability to proliferate in response to growth factors, and remaining stationary). However, incompatibility between junctional integrity and endothelial cell motility remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to determine whether endothelial cells (in colonies generated from differentiating embryonic stem cells in contact with OP9 stromal cell layer) have a resting endothelial phenotype (i.e., lack motility). Time-lapse analyses showed that though endothelial cells were connected to each other through adherens junctions and tight junctions, they were moving continuously within the colonies. Endothelial cell movement was accompanied by formation of lamellipodia, which transiently accumulated green fluorescent protein-tagged beta-actin and p41-Arc (a subunit of the actin-related protein 2/3 complex) at their anterior tips, suggesting that the movement is an active behavior of endothelial cells. Endothelial cell-specific expression of yellow fluorescent protein-tagged vascular endothelial-cadherin and claudin-5 revealed that adherens junctions and tight junctions persisted during endothelial cell migration. Furthermore, intercellular junctions underwent dynamic remodeling at the leading edge of moving endothelial cells. These results suggest that endothelial cells can remain highly motile without losing intercellular junctions.

Actin-Related Protein 2-3 Complex↗
PubMed2006

Characterization of GATA-1(+) hemangioblastic cells in the mouse embryo.

Hemangioblasts are thought to be one of the sources of hematopoietic progenitors, yet little is known about their localization and fate in the mouse embryo. We show here that a subset of cells co-expressing the hematopoietic marker GATA-1 and the endothelial marker VE-cadherin localize on the yolk sac blood islands at embryonic day 7.5. Clonal analysis demonstrated that GATA-1(+) cells isolated from E7.0-7.5 embryos include a common precursor for hematopoietic and endothelial cells. Moreover, this precursor possesses primitive and definitive hematopoietic bipotential. By using a transgenic complementation rescue approach, GATA-1(+) cell-derived progenitors were selectively restored in Runx1-deficient mice. In the rescued mice, definitive erythropoiesis was recovered but the rescued progenitors did not display multilineage hematopoiesis or intra-aortic hematopoietic clusters. These results provide evidence of the presence of GATA-1(+) hemangioblastic cells in the extra-embryonic region and also their functional contribution to hematopoiesis in the embryo.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

B cell potential can be obtained from pre-circulatory yolk sac, but with low frequency.

The ontogenic source of definitive hematopoietic system has been identified in non-mammalian vertebrates such as birds and amphibians by orthotopic embryo grafting, but remains unclear for mammals because of technical difficulties. Here, we successfully generated mouse chimeras by grafting yolk sac (YS) on YS of the host embryos before establishing circulation between YS and embryo proper and cultured the whole embryo for 66 h. Donor YS were isolated from C57BL/6 Ly-5.1 and EGFP-transgenic mouse embryos, and recipient embryos from C57BL/6 Ly-5.2 mouse. Almost one-half of the grafts in YS-YS chimeras survived and had obvious blood flow; graft-derived cells comprised 12.7+/-0.9% of the blood cells in the circulation. These graft-derived blood cells consisted mainly of erythroid cells, some myeloid cells and a few blastic cells. In addition, CD19(+) B cells were generated from the graft-derived cells isolated from aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) regions of the YS-YS chimeras; however, the frequency of the YS-derived B cell was low (1.0+/-0.6%) when co-cultured with OP9 stromal cells. These results demonstrate that B cell potential exists in YS before the circulation. Although the major source for B cell is intra-embryonic AGM region, YS may contribute to definitive lymphopoiesis in vivo in mice.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Accelerated acquisition of permeability barrier function in the skin of presenilin-1-deficient embryos.

Presenilin-1 (PS1) is a transmembrane protein and is responsible for the development of early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease. PS1 is essential for neurogenesis, somitogenesis, angiogenesis and cardiac morphogenesis. We report here that PS1 is involved in the development of skin barrier function. PS1-deficient embryos showed an accelerated acquisition of permeability barrier function at embryonic day 17.5 as manifested by the exclusion of a dye solution. While the expression of beta-catenin and epidermal differentiation markers such as keratin 1 and loricrin was not substantially altered, an increased accumulation of E-cadherin was observed immunohistochemically in the mutant skin. These results suggest that PS1 regulates the acquisition of permeability barrier function in the skin.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Proper levels of c-Myb are discretely defined at distinct steps of hematopoietic cell development.

The definitive hematopoietic cell lineages have been proposed to originate from hemogenic endothelial cells during mouse embryogenesis. c-Myb is a transcription factor that is essential for the development of definitive hematopoiesis. To investigate the functional role of c-Myb in hematopoietic cell development from endothelial cells, we introduced a c-myb transgene expressed under the control of a tetracycline-regulated promoter into the c-myb(-/-) embryonic stem (ES) cell line, with the aim of inducing c-Myb expression at any stage and at any level. Induction of c-Myb expression after replating c-myb(-)(/)(-) endothelial cells rescued the generation and proliferation of definitive hematopoietic progenitor cells, suggesting that c-Myb expression in developing endothelial cells is not a prerequisite for their hematogenic potential. Overexpression of c-Myb, however, prevented the terminal differentiation of erythrocytes and megakaryocytes and completely abolished B-lymphocyte development. Our results indicate that c-Myb is a major factor that controls differentiation as well as proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells derived from hemogenic endothelial cells, and that appropriate levels of c-Myb protein are strictly defined at distinct differentiation steps of each hematopoietic cell lineage.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Cardiac ischemia activates vascular endothelial cadherin promoter in both preexisting vascular cells and bone marrow cells involved in neovascularization.

Vascular endothelial cadherin (VE-cadherin) is expressed on vascular endothelial cells, which are involved in developmental vessel formation. However, it remains elusive how VE-cadherin-expressing cells function in postnatal neovascularization. To trace VE-cadherin-expressing cells, we developed mice expressing either green fluorescent protein or LacZ driven by VE-cadherin promoter using Cre-loxP system. Although VE-cadherin promoter is less active after birth than during embryogenesis in blood vessels, it is reactivated on cardiac ischemia. Both types of reporter-positive cells are found in the vasculature and in the infarcted myocardium. Those found in the vasculature were pre-existing endothelial cells and incorporated endothelial progenitor cells derived from extracardiac tissue. In addition to the vasculature, VE-cadherin promoter-activated cells were positive for CD45 in the bone marrow cells of the infarcted mice. VE-cadherin promoter-reactivated CD45-positive leukocytes were also found in the infarcted area. In addition, VE-cadherin promoter was activated in the bone marrow vessels of the infarcted mice. Collectively, our findings reveal a new ischemia-induced neovascularization mechanism involving VE-cadherin; the re-expressed VE-cadherin-mediated cell adhesion between cells may be involved not only in homing of bone marrow-derived cells to ischemic area but also mobilization from bone marrow.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Over-expression of c-Myb increases the frequency of hemogenic precursors in the endothelial cell population.

Definitive hematopoiesis has been proposed to arise from hemogenic endothelial cells during mouse embryogenesis. The c-myb proto-oncogene is essential for the development of definitive hematopoiesis and was reported to be activated in hemogenic endothelial cells. To investigate whether c-Myb is involved in regulating the development of hemogenic endothelial cells, we conditionally induced c-myb over-expression during the in vitro differentiation of embryonic stem cells. VE-cadherin+ CD45- cells inducibly expressing c-Myb showed an increase in multilineage colony formation as well as an augmented capacity of the colony forming cells to self-renew in vitro under the condition that only the endogenous c-myb gene was expressed during differentiation of hematopoietic cells. Over-expression of c-Myb in the endothelial population led to activation of genes associated with definitive hematopoiesis such as Runx1, Hoxb4, Mll and Etv6. Our data provide evidence that c-Myb is able to exert an effect in endothelial cells which fosters the establishment of their hemogenic potential.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Presenilin-1 controls the growth and differentiation of endothelial progenitor cells through its beta-catenin-binding region.

Presenilin-1 (PS1) is a gene responsible for the development of early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease. Targeted disruption of the PS1 gene in mice suggested that PS1 might be involved in angiogenesis. We have used an in vitro embryonic stem (ES) cell culture system to prepare endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) lacking PS1 and investigated the roles of PS1 in endothelial cell lineage. With this system, Flk-1+ E-cadherin- EPC were generated from PS1-deficient ES cells, and the EPC lacking PS1 as well as wild-type EPC grew to form VE-cadherin+ endothelial colonies supported by a layer of OP9 stromal cells. Although the endothelial colonies from PS1-deficient EPC showed morphology similar to those from wild-type EPC, the PS1-deficient EPC formed a large number of the colonies compared to wild-type EPC. The enhanced colony-forming ability of PS1-deficient EPC was attenuated by the inductions of wild-type human PS1. To differentiate multiple activities of PS1 for colony-forming ability, we used two types of human PS1 mutants: one (hPS1D257A) with the aspartate to alanine mutation at residue 257 that impairs the proteolytic activity of PS1, and the other (hPS1Deltacat) deleting amino acids 340-371 of the cytosolic loop sequence essential for beta-catenin binding. hPS1D257A showed activity to regulate the colony-forming ability of PS1-deficient EPC, while hPS1Deltacat failed to exhibit this activity. These results suggest that PS1 regulates the growth and differentiation of endothelial progenitor cells through its beta-catenin-binding region and that the defect of PS1 function in endothelial cell lineage could contribute to the induction of vascular pathology.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

High level of endothelial cell-specific gene expression by a combination of the 5' flanking region and the 5' half of the first intron of the VE-cadherin gene.

To develop a tool to obtain a high level of gene expression specifically in endothelial cells (ECs), we assessed enhancer activity of fragments in the first intron of the VE-cadherin gene using 3 different experimental systems: luciferase assay in the F2 EC line, green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression in ECs generated in embryonic stem (ES) cell differentiation culture, and GFP expression in transgenic mice. Although the 2.5-kbp (kilobase pair) 5' flanking sequence of the VE-cadherin gene is EC specific, adding 4 kbp of the 5' half of the first intron affected an enhancement of the gene expression level in all 3 assay systems. No other fragments tested in this study could confer such effects. Compared with other gene expression units, the unit described in this study would be the most optimum one available to date for EC-specific gene expression. Because this unit can express genes in VE-cadherin(+) progenitors of hematopoietic cells but not in fully committed hematopoietic cells, it will be useful to manipulate specifically the uncommitted progenitor stage during hematopoietic cell differentiation.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Cell adhesion to ephrinb2 is induced by EphB4 independently of its kinase activity.

Cell to cell interaction in bone marrow is crucial for differentiation of hematopoietic cells. We have shown that EphB4 receptor is expressed in erythroid progenitor and its activation accelerates erythroid differentiation. To elucidate the role of EphB4 activation in erythropoiesis, we analyzed effects of EphB4 on cell adhesive pathways. Cell adhesion with the extension of filopodial pseudopod was observed by EphB4 activation. EphB4 activation also enhanced an effect of fibronectin-mediated adhesive pathway along with formation of the c-Cbl/CrkL complex. The tyrosine kinase activity of EphB4 was dispensable for those phenomena. These results suggest that activation of EphB4 participates in adhesive but not repulsive signals independently of its tyrosine kinase activity in hematopoietic cells.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗
PubMed2004

Abnormal angiogenesis in Foxo1 (Fkhr)-deficient mice.

Members of the Foxo family, Foxo1 (Fkhr), Foxo3 (Fkhrl1), and Foxo4 (Afx), are mammalian homologs of daf-16, which influences life span and energy metabolism in Caenorhabditis elegans. Mammalian FOXO proteins also play important roles in cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, stress resistance, and energy metabolism. In this study, we generated Foxo1-deficient mice to investigate the physiological role of FOXO1. The Foxo1-deficient mice died around embryonic day 11 because of defects in the branchial arches and remarkably impaired vascular development of embryos and yolk sacs. In vitro differentiation of embryonic stem cells demonstrated that endothelial cells derived from wild-type and Foxo1-deficient embryonic stem cells were able to produce comparable numbers of colonies supported by a layer of OP9 stromal cells. Although the morphology of the endothelial cell colonies was identical in both genotypes in the absence of exogenous vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Foxo1-deficient endothelial cells showed a markedly different morphological response compared with wild-type endothelial cells in the presence of exogenous VEGF. These results suggest that Foxo1 is essential to the ability of endothelial cells to respond properly to a high dose of VEGF, thereby playing a critical role in normal vascular development.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Recombination signal sequence-binding protein Jkappa alters mesodermal cell fate decisions by suppressing cardiomyogenesis.

The transcription factor recombination signal sequence-binding protein Jkappa (RBP-J) is a key downstream element in the signaling pathway of all four mammalian Notch receptors that are critically involved in the control of embryonic and adult development. RBP-J-deficient mice display complex defects and die around day 9.5 postcoitum. Here, we investigate the function of RBP-J in the development of mesodermal cell lineages by using the OP9 stroma coculture system. RBP-J-deficient embryonic stem (ES) cells gave rise to cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and primitive and definitive hematopoietic cells. Thus, RBP-J-mediated signals are not required for generation of these cell types. However, when compared with parental RBP-J-expressing ES cells, cardiomyogenesis derived from RBP-J-deficient ES cells was increased. Repression over the cardiogenic pathway was restored by expressing RBP-J in RBP-J-deficient ES cells. Our data indicate that Notch signaling via RBP-J plays an important role for the correct specification of myocardial cell fates.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Erythropoiesis from acetyl LDL incorporating endothelial cells at the preliver stage.

Erythropoiesis is characterized by 2 waves of production during mouse embryogenesis: a primitive one originating from the yolk sac (YS) and a definitive one produced from both the YS and the embryo proper. How the latter wave is generated remains unclear. To investigate our hypothesis that endothelial cells (ECs) could generate erythroid cells, we designed a method to label ECs at 10 days after coitus. This labeling method associates 2 techniques: an intracardiac inoculation that allows molecules to be delivered into the bloodstream followed by a whole-embryo culture period. DiI-conjugated acetylated low-density lipoproteins (Ac-LDL-DiI) were used to specifically tag ECs from the inside. One hour after inoculation, DiI staining was found along the entire endothelial tree. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis revealed that DiI+ cells were CD31+, CD34+, and CD45-, an antigen makeup characteristic of the endothelial lineage. Twelve hours after inoculation, 43% of DiI+ circulating cells belonged to the erythroid lineage. These cells expressed Ter119 and displayed an adult globin chain arrangement; thus they belonged to the definitive lineage as confirmed in erythroid colony formation. The remaining cells likely represent committed white blood cells or multipotent progenitors, as revealed by a mixed-colony formation. Beyond the 29-somite stage, the proportion of DiI+ erythroid cells gradually decreased. These results demonstrate the generation of hematopoietic cells from an endothelial intermediate, using in vivo tracing. We provide evidence for a release of these cells into the circulation and hypothesize that these cells are able to colonize the fetal liver and generate definitive erythrocytes in vivo.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Chamber-specific differentiation of Nkx2.5-positive cardiac precursor cells from murine embryonic stem cells.

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are a useful system to study cardiac differentiation in vitro. It has been difficult, however, to track the fates of chamber-specific cardiac lineages, since differentiation is induced within the embryoid body. We have established an in vitro culture system to track Nkx2.5(+) cell lineages during mouse ES cell differentiation by using green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter. Nkx2.5/GFP(+) cardiomyocytes purified from embryoid bodies express sarcomeric tropomyosin and myosin heavy chain and heterogeneously express cardiac troponin I (cTnI), myosin light chain 2v (MLC2v) and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP). After 4-week culture, GFP(+) cells exhibited electrophysiological characteristics specific to sinoatrial (SA) node, atrial, or ventricular type. Furthermore, we found that administration of 10(-7) M retinoic acid (RA) to embryoid bodies increased the percentage of MLC2v(-)ANP(+) cells; this also increased the expression of atrial-specific genes in the Nkx2.5/GFP(+) fraction, in a time- and dose-dependent fashion. These results suggest that Nkx2.5(+) lineage cells possess the potential to differentiate into various cardiomyocyte cell types and that RA can modify the differentiation potential of Nkx2.5(+) cardiomyocytes at an early stage.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Putative intermediate precursor between hematogenic endothelial cells and blood cells in the developing embryo.

During embryogenesis, endothelial cells are a source of hematopoietic cells. Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin modulates adherens junctions between endothelial cells. How endothelial cells, integrated into the vascular bed via adherens junctions, give rise to free-floating hematopoietic cells has been examined. Contrary to our previous reports, in this report a cell type simultaneously expressing VE-cadherin and the hematopoietic marker CD45 was identified, without rigorous enzymatic dissociation of embryonic tissues. In spite of expressing several other endothelial markers such as endothelial cell nitrous oxide synthase (ECNOS) and MECA-32, this newly defined population failed to produce endothelial colonies when cultured on OP9 stroma, in direct contrast to enzymatically dissociated VE-cadherin+ cells. When isolated from 9.5 days post coitus (d.p.c.) embryos, VE-cadherin+ CD45+ cells generated erythroid, myeloid, but not B lymphoid, cells, also in contrast to VE-cadherin+ cells obtained by enzymatic dissociation. Runx1 null mutant embryos lacked this novel population. Collectively, these results introduce a novel VE-cadherin+ population within the developing embryo, which may represent an intermediate cell type in the transition of hemogenic endothelial cells into blood.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

[Embryonic stem cell differentiation: the role of growth factors].

In vitro differentiation of embryonic stem cells is expected as a useful means to prepare target cells for transplantation therapy. If normal and functional cells can be induced to differentiate only by adding a specific growth factor, it should be a safer and simpler method. Some of the examples showed, however, that it is necessary to follow an actual differentiation process taking place in embryogenesis to induce a specific cell lineage, so that it is difficult to selectively obtain target cells by using a single growth factor. Yet, it is also suggested that cell specification may be controlled by a specific growth factor or its combination in a simplified situation such as a single cell culture in a serum-free medium.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

SCL/tal-1-dependent process determines a competence to select the definitive hematopoietic lineage prior to endothelial differentiation.

Hematopoiesis in most vertebrate species occurs in two distinct phases, primitive and definitive, which diverge from FLK1(+)VE-cadherin(-) mesoderm and FLK1(+)VE-cadherin(+) endothelial cells (EC), respectively. This study aimed at determining the stage at which hematopoietic lineage fate is determined by manipulating the SCL/tal-1 expression that is known to be essential for the early development of the primitive and definitive hematopoietic systems. We established SCL-null ES cell lines in which SCL expression is rescued by tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase-loxP site-mediated recombination. While no hematopoietic cells (HPC) were detected in SCL-null ES cell differentiation cultures, SCL gene reactivation from day 2 to day 4 after initiation of differentiation could rescue both primitive and definitive hematopoiesis. SCL reactivation at later phases was ineffective. Moreover, generation of VE-cadherin(+) EC that can give rise to definitive HPC required SCL reactivation prior to VE-cadherin expression. These results indicated that the competence to become HPC is acquired at the mesodermal stage by a SCL-dependent process that takes place independently of determination of endothelial fate.

Animals↗