Background: Endothelial cells regulate their cell cycle as blood vessels remodel and transition to quiescence downstream of blood flow-induced mechanotransduction. Laminar blood flow leads to quiescence, but how flow-mediated quiescence is established and maintained is poorly understood.
Methods: Primary human endothelial cells were exposed to laminar flow regimens and gene expression manipulations, and quiescence depth was analyzed via time-to-cell cycle reentry after flow cessation. Mouse and zebrafish endothelial expression patterns were examined via scRNA-seq (single-cell RNA sequencing) analysis, and mutant or morphant fish lacking p27 were analyzed for endothelial cell cycle regulation and in vivo cellular behaviors.
Results: Arterial flow-exposed endothelial cells had a distinct transcriptome, and they first entered a deep quiescence, then transitioned to shallow quiescence under homeostatic maintenance conditions. In contrast, venous flow-exposed endothelial cells entered deep quiescence early that did not change with homeostasis. The cell cycle inhibitor p27 (CDKN1B) was required to establish endothelial flow-mediated quiescence, and expression levels positively correlated with quiescence depth. p27 loss in vivo led to endothelial cell cycle upregulation and ectopic sprouting, consistent with loss of quiescence. HES1 and ID3, transcriptional repressors of p27 upregulated by arterial flow, were required for quiescence depth changes and the reduced p27 levels associated with shallow quiescence.
Conclusions: Endothelial cell flow-mediated quiescence has unique properties and temporal regulation of quiescence depth that depends on the flow stimulus. These findings are consistent with a model whereby flow-mediated endothelial cell quiescence depth is temporally regulated downstream of p27 transcriptional regulation by HES1 and ID3. The findings are important in understanding endothelial cell quiescence misregulation that leads to vascular dysfunction and disease.
Keywords: blood circulation; cell cycle; cell cycle checkpoints; endothelial cells; zebrafish.