Project Details
Projekt
Lymphangiogenesis and hemangiogenesis: Common molecular determinants?
Applicant
Professor Dr. Jörg Wilting
Subject Area
Pathology
Term
from 2003 to 2008
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5417869
The embryonic origin of lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) is still a matter of controversy. It has often been suggested that LECs develop by sprouting from specialized parts of the deep embryonic veins. However, descriptive and experimental studies have shown that lymphatics also develop independently from the deep embryonic veins and in close association with hematopoietic cells. This suggests that in the embryo bipotential hem-lymphangioblasts exist, whose localization and differentiation potential have not been investigated. This will be studied by means of cell lineage experiments in the first part of our project. In the blood islands of the yolk sac, blood vascular endothelial cells (BECs) and the first generation of blood cells develop from a common hemangioblast. The second definitive generation of hematopoietic cells, which then also produces the leukopoietic lineages, develops temporally and spatially in close relation to the lymphatics. In the second part of our project we will study if the genes that control the development of hemangioblasts and hematoblasts also control the development of lymphangioblasts.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Participating Person
Professor Dr. Lothar L. Schweigerer
