Notch signaling is an evolutionarily conserved intercellular signaling pathway that plays numerous crucial roles in vascular development and physiology.Compelling evidence indicates that Notch signaling is vital for vascular morphogenesis including arterial and venous differentiation and endothelial tip and stalk cell specification during sprouting angiogenesis and also vessel maturation featured by mural cell differentiation and recruitment.Notch signaling is also required for vascular homeostasis in adults by keeping quiescent phalanx cells from re-entering cell cycle and by modulating the behavior of endothelial progenitor cells.We will summarize recent advances of Notch pathway in vascular biology with special emphasis on the underlying molecular mechanisms.
The retina is one of the most essential elements of vision pathway in vertebrate. The dysplasia of retina cause congenital blindness or vision disability in individuals, and the misbalance in adult retinal vascular homeostasis leads to neovascularization-associated diseases in adults, such as diabetic retinopathy or age-related macular degeneration. Many developmental signaling pathways are involved in the process of retinal development and vascular homeostasis. Among them, Notch signaling pathway has long been studied, and Notch signaling-interfered mouse models show both neural retina dysplasia and vascular abnormality. In this review, we discuss the roles of Notch signaling in the maintenance of retinal progenitor cells, specification of retinal neurons and glial cells, and the sustaining of retina vascular homeostasis, especially from the aspects of conditional knockout mouse models. The potential of Notch signal manipulation may provide a powerful cell fate- and neovascularization-controlling tool that could have important applications in treatment of retinal diseases.
Minhua ZhengZifeng ZhangXingcheng ZhaoYuqiang DingHua Han
