Ocular vessel patterning in zebrafish is indirectly regulated by Hedgehog signaling

Omri Weiss, Rivka Kaufman, Eyal Mishani, Adi Inbal*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The superficial ocular vasculature of the embryonic zebrafish develops in a highly stereotypic manner and hence provides a convenient model for studying molecular mechanisms that regulate vascular patterning. We have used transgenic zebrafish embryos in which all endothelial cells express enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein and small molecule inhibitors to examine the contribution of two signaling pathways, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and Hedgehog (Hh) pathways, to the development of the superficial system. We find that most, but not all vessels of the superficial system depend on VEGF signaling for their growth. Hh signaling appears to limit superficial vessel growth over the dorsal eye and is required to promote superficial vessel growth over the ventral eye. These effects of Hh signaling are indirect. Our initial analyses of factors that regulate growth and patterning of superficial ocular vessels suggest that early patterning events in the embryo during organogenesis stages could influence vascular patterning later on. By studying development of specific vascular systems it should be possible to identify new roles for signaling pathways in regulating vascular development.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)277-284
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Developmental Biology
Volume61
Issue number3-5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 UPV/EHU Press.

Keywords

  • Hedgehog
  • Ocular vasculature
  • VEGF
  • Zebrafish

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