Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease Article Early Embryonic Expression of AP-2α Is Critical for Cardiovascular Development Amy-Leigh Johnson 1, Jürgen E. Schneider 2, Timothy J. Mohun 3, Trevor Williams 4, Shoumo Bhattacharya 5 , Deborah J. Henderson 1, Helen M. Phillips 1 and Simon D. Bamforth 1,* 1 Newcastle University Biosciences Institute, Centre for Life, Newcastle NE1 3BZ, UK;
[email protected] (A.-L.J.);
[email protected] (D.J.H.);
[email protected] (H.M.P.) 2 Biomedical Imaging, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK;
[email protected] 3 The Francis Crick Institute, London NW1 1AT, UK;
[email protected] 4 Department of Craniofacial Biology, University of Colorado Anshutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA;
[email protected] 5 Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +44-191-241-8764 Received: 22 June 2020; Accepted: 22 July 2020; Published: 23 July 2020 Abstract: Congenital cardiovascular malformation is a common birth defect incorporating abnormalities of the outflow tract and aortic arch arteries, and mice deficient in the transcription factor AP-2α (Tcfap2a) present with complex defects affecting these structures. AP-2α is expressed in the pharyngeal surface ectoderm and neural crest at mid-embryogenesis in the mouse, but the precise tissue compartment in which AP-2α is required for cardiovascular development has not been identified. In this study we describe the fully penetrant AP-2α deficient cardiovascular phenotype on a C57Bl/6J genetic background and show that this is associated with increased apoptosis in the pharyngeal ectoderm.