Specification and Diversification of Pericytes and Smooth Muscle Cells from Mesenchymoangioblasts

Publication date: 30 May 2017
Source:Cell Reports, Volume 19, Issue 9
Author(s): Akhilesh Kumar, Saritha Sandra D'Souza, Oleg V. Moskvin, Huishi Toh, Bowen Wang, Jue Zhang, Scott Swanson, Lian-Wang Guo, James A. Thomson, Igor I. Slukvin
Elucidating the pathways that lead to vasculogenic cells, and being able to identify their progenitors and lineage-restricted cells, is critical to the establishment of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) models for vascular diseases and development of vascular therapies. Here, we find that mesoderm-derived pericytes (PCs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) originate from a clonal mesenchymal progenitor mesenchymoangioblast (MB). In clonogenic cultures, MBs differentiate into primitive PDGFRβ⁺CD271⁺CD73⁻ mesenchymal progenitors, which give rise to proliferative PCs, SMCs, and mesenchymal stem/stromal cells. MB-derived PCs can be further specified to CD274⁺ capillary and DLK1⁺ arteriolar PCs with a proinflammatory and contractile phenotype, respectively. SMC maturation was induced using a MEK inhibitor. Establishing the vasculogenic lineage tree, along with identification of stage- and lineage-specific markers, provides a platform for interrogating the molecular mechanisms that regulate vasculogenic cell specification and diversification and manufacturing well-defined mural cell populations for vascular engineering and cellular therapies from hPSCs.

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Teaser

Kumar et al. find that mesodermal pericytes and smooth muscle cells in human pluripotent stem cell cultures originate from a common endothelial and mesenchymal cell precursor, the mesenchymoangioblast. They show how different lineages of mural cells are specified from mesenchymoangioblasts and define stage- and lineage-specific markers for vasculogenic cells.


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