GFAP (Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein)-Positive Progenitor Cells Contribute to the Development of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells and Endothelial Cells-Brief Report
Article (Faculty180)
While GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein) is commonly used as a classical marker for astrocytes in the central nervous system, GFAP-expressing progenitor cells give rise to other cell types during development. The goal of this study was to investigate whether GFAP-expressing progenitor cells contribute to the development of vascular cells in major arteries. Approach and Results: To label GFAP-expressing progenitor cells and their progeny, we crossed promoter-driven recombinase mice (-) with transgenic mice expressing the -dependent dual fluorescent reporter gene. Using this genetic fate-mapping approach, here we demonstrate that GFAP-positive progenitor cells contribute to the development of vascular smooth muscle cells in both neural crest- and non-neural crest-derived vascular beds. In addition, GFAP-positive progenitor cells contribute to a subset of endothelial cells in some vasculature. Furthermore, fate-mapping analyses at multiple time points of mouse development demonstrate a time-dependent increase in the contribution of GFAP-positive progenitors to vascular smooth muscle cells, which mostly occurs in the postnatal period.
