Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden 2333ZA, the Netherlands.
Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden 2333ZA, the Netherlands.
Stem Cell Reports. 2022 Jul 12;17(7):1536-1545. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2022.05.022. Epub 2022 Jun 30.
Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a genetic disease characterized by weak blood vessels. HHT1 is caused by mutations in the ENDOGLIN (ENG) gene. Here, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from a patient with rare mosaic HHT1 with tissues containing both mutant (ENG) and normal cells, enabling derivation of isogenic diseased and healthy hiPSCs, respectively. We showed reduced ENG expression in HHT1 endothelial cells (HHT1-hiPSC-ECs), reflecting haploinsufficiency. HHT1-hiPSC-ECs and the healthy isogenic control behaved similarly in two-dimensional (2D) culture, forming functionally indistinguishable vascular networks. However, when grown in 3D organ-on-chip devices under microfluidic flow, lumenized vessels formed in which defective vascular organization was evident: interaction between inner ECs and surrounding pericytes was decreased, and there was evidence for vascular leakage. Organs on chip thus revealed features of HHT in hiPSC-derived blood vessels that were not evident in conventional 2D assays.
遗传性出血性毛细血管扩张症(HHT)是一种以血管脆弱为特征的遗传病。HHT1 是由 ENG(内皮糖蛋白)基因突变引起的。在这里,我们从一位罕见的镶嵌型 HHT1 患者的组织中生成了诱导多能干细胞(hiPSC),这些组织中同时包含突变(ENG)和正常细胞,从而分别衍生出同基因的患病和健康 hiPSC。我们发现 HHT1 内皮细胞(HHT1-hiPSC-EC)中的 ENG 表达减少,反映出杂合不足。HHT1-hiPSC-EC 和健康的同基因对照在二维(2D)培养中表现相似,形成功能上无法区分的血管网络。然而,当在微流控下的 3D 器官芯片设备中生长时,形成了有腔的血管,其中明显存在血管组织缺陷:内皮细胞(EC)之间的相互作用减少,并且存在血管渗漏的证据。因此,器官芯片揭示了 hiPSC 衍生的血管中存在 HHT 的特征,而这些特征在传统的 2D 测定中并不明显。