RESEARCH ARTICLE Coronary arterial development is regulated by a Dll4-Jag1-EphrinB2 signaling cascade Stanislao Igor Travisano1,2, Vera Lucia Oliveira1,2, Bele´ n Prados1,2, Joaquim Grego-Bessa1,2, Rebeca Pin˜ eiro-Sabarı´s1,2, Vanesa Bou1,2, Manuel J Go´ mez3, Fa´ tima Sa´ nchez-Cabo3, Donal MacGrogan1,2*, Jose´ Luis de la Pompa1,2* 1Intercellular Signalling in Cardiovascular Development and Disease Laboratory, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), Madrid, Spain; 2CIBER de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares, Madrid, Spain; 3Bioinformatics Unit, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, Madrid, Spain Abstract Coronaries are essential for myocardial growth and heart function. Notch is crucial for mouse embryonic angiogenesis, but its role in coronary development remains uncertain. We show Jag1, Dll4 and activated Notch1 receptor expression in sinus venosus (SV) endocardium. Endocardial Jag1 removal blocks SV capillary sprouting, while Dll4 inactivation stimulates excessive capillary growth, suggesting that ligand antagonism regulates coronary primary plexus formation. Later endothelial ligand removal, or forced expression of Dll4 or the glycosyltransferase Mfng, blocks coronary plexus remodeling, arterial differentiation, and perivascular cell maturation. Endocardial deletion of Efnb2 phenocopies the coronary arterial defects of Notch mutants. Angiogenic rescue experiments in ventricular explants, or in primary human endothelial cells, indicate that EphrinB2 is a critical effector of antagonistic Dll4 and Jag1 functions in arterial morphogenesis. Thus, coronary arterial precursors are specified in the SV prior to primary coronary plexus formation and subsequent arterial differentiation depends on a Dll4-Jag1-EphrinB2 signaling *For correspondence:
[email protected] (DMG); cascade.
[email protected] (JLP) Competing interests: The authors declare that no Introduction competing interests exist.