Cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and myocardial infarction, are the world's leading causes of mortality, accounting for over 18 million deaths a year. A team of researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has now made a discovery that could pave the way for novel therapeutic strategies to treat these ischemic cardiovascular diseases.
The researchers, led by Professor Ferdinand le Noble, have identified a new cell type in blood vessels responsible for vascular growth. This cell type, dubbed the "endothelial L-tip cell" or "pioneer cell," resides within the inner layer of the blood vasculature, the endothelium.
Using advanced imaging techniques and single-cell sequencing, the scientists found that these pioneer cells move within the vessel wall and, when they encounter specific signals produced by cells in the surrounding organ, they initiate the process of new blood vessel formation.
“Single cell sequencing combines detailed RNA sequencing of individual cells with bio-informatic analyses and allows precise identification of cell subtypes and the molecules these cells produce for cell-to-cell communication,” Dr. Laetitia Preau, first author of the paper published in Nature Communications explains. “Using this technique, we discovered that the vascular patterning is encoded by a distinct set of molecules that can only be sensed by a subset of endothelial cells to promote vessel growth.”
The cells in the tissue produce an organ-specific set of molecules that encode the instruction how to make a new blood vessel at that particular place and time. Once the prospective pioneer cell senses and unravels this specific tissue-derived molecular code, it will initiate the vascular growth process.