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Vascular adhesion protein-1 determines the cellular properties of endometrial pericytes

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posted on 2021-06-18, 14:40 authored by Seley Gharanei, Katherine Fishwick, Ruban Peter Durairaj, Tianrong Jin, Eleftherios Siamantouras, Kuo-Kang Liu, Anne Straube, Emma S. Lucas, Christopher J. Weston, Pia Rantakari, Marko Salmi, Sirpa Jalkanen, Jan J. Brosens, Bee Kang Tan
Vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) is an inflammation-inducible adhesion molecule and a primary amine oxidase involved in immune cell trafficking. Leukocyte extravasation into tissues is mediated by adhesion molecules expressed on endothelial cells and pericytes. Pericytes play a major role in the angiogenesis and vascularization of cycling endometrium. However, the functional properties of pericytes in the human endometrium are not known. Here we show that pericytes surrounding the spiral arterioles in midluteal human endometrium constitutively express VAP-1. We first characterize these pericytes and demonstrate that knockdown of VAP-1 perturbed their biophysical properties and compromised their contractile, migratory, adhesive and clonogenic capacities. Furthermore, we show that loss of VAP-1 disrupts pericyte-uterine natural killer cell interactions in vitro. Taken together, the data not only reveal that endometrial pericytes represent a cell population with distinct biophysical and functional properties but also suggest a pivotal role for VAP-1 in regulating the recruitment of innate immune cells in human endometrium. We posit that VAP-1 could serve as a potential biomarker for pregnancy pathologies caused by a compromised perivascular environment prior to conception.

Funding

This work was supported by funds from the Tommy's National Miscarriage Research Centre and a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award to JB (212233/Z/18/Z). SG was supported by funds of Warwick Medical School. AS was supported by a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (200870/Z/16/Z). BT was supported by MRC grants (MR/P013538/2 and MR/R020981/2)

History

Citation

Front. Cell Dev. Biol., 18 January 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2020.621016

Author affiliation

Department of Cardiovascular Sciences

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

Volume

8

Pagination

621016

Publisher

Frontiers Media

issn

2296-634X

Acceptance date

2020-12-16

Copyright date

2021

Available date

2021-06-18

Language

English

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