Remodeling coronary arteries
During the development of the coronary vasculature, endothelial cells form the primitive coronary plexus, which then remodels by recruiting cells from the epicardial layer that ultimately give rise to smooth muscle cells. Liu et al. found that mice expressing a truncated form of the ciliogenesis gene Wdpcp formed a primitive coronary plexus, albeit at an accelerated rate. However, the remodeling of the coronary arteries in these mice was defective because of the impaired migration of epicardial cells. Understanding how coronary vasculature remodels during development may yield strategies to treat coronary artery disease, a leading global cause of mortality and morbidity.
This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.
