The University of Arizona

MONOCYTES CAN BE INDUCED TO EXPRESS LYMPHATIC PHENOTYPES

W Changming, L Xin, T Hua, W Shikun, X Qiong, Z Zhigeng, W Xueying

Abstract


Although it has been recently shown thatmonocytes can transdifferentiate into bloodvascular endothelial cells which are involvedin angiogenesis, little attention has been paidto their potential to transdifferentiate intolymphatic endothelial cells. Therefore, weexamined this question in our study. We firststimulated monocytes with either fibronectin(FN), VEGF-C, TNF-α, LPS, or IL-3 for 24h.Then we examined the expression of severalmarkers of lymphatic endothelium and foundthat the monocytes expressed specificlymphatic endothelial markers, LYVE-1,Podoplanin, and Prox-1, but not commonendothelial markers vWF or eNOS. Next,monocytes were incubated in endothelialgrowth medium with FN and VEGF-C for 6d.These monocytes were also found to expressLYVE-1, Podoplanin and Prox-1, but notvWF or eNOS. Our results indicate thatmonocytes in vitro can be easily induced topresent lymphatic phenotypes in aninflammatory environment.

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