FIGURE 20.

Unusual large-caliber vessels in various tissues in mice lacking endothelial a disintegrin and metalloprotease 10 (ADAM10)/Notch signaling. Examples of enlarged vascular structures are observed in A10ΔEC or N1ΔEC/N4−/− mice, but not in controls. Subcapsular liver vessels (A), subepicardial vessels in the heart (B), enlarged fluid-filled vascular structures in intestinal villi (C) and in bone, adjacent to the growth plate (D and E, black arrows point to examples of enlarged vasculature structures), are shown. A10ΔEC mice also develop large sheets of endothelial cells in the retina after exposure to the oxygen-induced retinopathy model (F, see arrow), whereas wild-type controls usually contain tufts without lumens (G, see arrow). An embryonic day 8.5 embryo lacking VEGF, which induces endothelial Notch signaling, shows an enlarged cardinal vein (H, pointed at by arrows). (A–G are from Alabi et al. (6) with permission from Circ Res, and Glomski et al. (82), with permission from Blood; H is from Carmeliet et al. (31), with permission from Nature.]