Endothelial Cell Cycle State Determines Propensity for Arterial-Venous Fate

Formation and maturation of a functional blood vascular system is required for the development and maintenance of all tissues in the body. During the process of blood vessel development, primordial endothelial cells are formed and become specified toward arterial or venous fates to generate a circulatory network that provides nutrients and oxygen to, and removes metabolic waste from, all tissues. Specification of arterial and venous endothelial cells occurs in conjunction with suppression of endothelial cell cycle progression, and endothelial cell hyperproliferation is associated with potentially lethal arterial-venous malformations. However, the mechanistic role that cell cycle state plays in arterial-venous specification is unknown. Herein, studying retinal vascular development in Fucci2aR reporter mice, we found that venous and arterial endothelial cells are in distinct cell cycle states during development and in adulthood. That is, venous endothelial cells reside in early G1 state, while arterial endothelial cells reside in late G1 state. Endothelial cells in early vs. late G1 exhibited significant differences in gene expression and activity, especially among BMP/TGF-β signaling components. The early G1 state was found to be essential for BMP4-induced venous specification, whereas late G1 state is essential for TGF-β1-induced arterial specification. In a mouse model of endothelial cell hyperproliferation and disrupted vascular remodeling, pharmacological inhibition of endothelial cell cycle rescues the arterial-venous specification defects. Collectively, our results show that endothelial cell cycle control plays a key role in arterial-venous network formation, and distinct cell cycle states provide distinct windows of opportunity for the molecular induction of arterial vs. venous specification.