"Developmental Mechanisms and Molecular Genetics of the Vasculature "

     This lecture is about how blood vessels develop. Our fundamental understanding of this critical process is based on decades of detailed study by anatomists. Thus, spatial and temporal analyses of the evolution of vascular structures have provided us with a series of snapshots of how blood vessels form, growth, differentiate, and remodel. More recently, we have begun to dissect the genetic pathways and cellular interactions that lead to the formation of vascular structures and the specialization of vascular beads. In spite of these recent advances, basic questions remain to be fully answered: where do endothelial cell precursors arise; when do they begin to differentiate; how do they influence organ development; how do they activate genetic programs that specify endothelial identity (i.e., arterial vs. venous); how do defects in those programs manifest as vascular abnormalities?