Thayer J M, Meyers K, Giachelli C M, Schwartz S M
Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA.
Cell Mol Biol Res. 1995;41(4):251-62.
We are still in the earliest stages of studying the molecular biology of vascular development. Key questions, even simple questions, such as the origin of endothelial precursors from the epiblast or the mesoderm, remain largely unanswered. For the smooth muscle cell, we do not even have a satisfactory molecular definition of cell type, because the known cell type-specific markers generally disappear when these cells are placed in vitro, and even in vivo smooth muscle cells identified by location can be very undifferentiated. A few bright spots illuminate this cloudy prospect. We do have endothelial lineage markers, and, given the powerful tools of promoting analysis, it seems likely that we will soon known a lot more about the identification of the endothelial lineage. It is hoped that this will help us understand how patterns of development of the vessel wall are controlled. Similarly, the failure of our early studies to identify molecules responsible for investment by smooth muscle can be seen as an exciting finding. If platelet-derived growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, and transforming growth factor beta are not expressed until after smooth muscle investment, still other as yet unidentified factors must be present to account for this stage of development of the vessel wall.
我们仍处于研究血管发育分子生物学的最初阶段。关键问题，甚至是简单的问题，比如内皮前体细胞是来源于外胚层还是中胚层，在很大程度上仍未得到解答。对于平滑肌细胞，我们甚至没有一个令人满意的细胞类型分子定义，因为已知的细胞类型特异性标志物在这些细胞置于体外时通常会消失，而且即使在体内，通过位置鉴定的平滑肌细胞也可能非常未分化。有几个亮点照亮了这一模糊的前景。我们确实有内皮谱系标志物，而且鉴于促进分析的强大工具，似乎我们很快就会对内皮谱系的鉴定了解更多。希望这将有助于我们理解血管壁的发育模式是如何被控制的。同样，我们早期研究未能鉴定出负责平滑肌包绕的分子，这可以被视为一个令人兴奋的发现。如果血小板衍生生长因子、成纤维细胞生长因子和转化生长因子β直到平滑肌包绕之后才表达，那么必定还有其他尚未确定的因子存在，以解释血管壁发育的这一阶段。
