Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2004 Apr;131(8):1847-57.
doi: 10.1242/dev.01080.

Endothelium-specific ablation of PDGFB leads to pericyte loss and glomerular, cardiac and placental abnormalities

Mattias Bjarnegård  1 , Maria Enge, Jenny Norlin, Sigrun Gustafsdottir, Simon Fredriksson, Alexandra Abramsson, Minoru Takemoto, Erika Gustafsson, Reinhard Fässler, Christer Betsholtz
Affiliations

Endothelium-specific ablation of PDGFB leads to pericyte loss and glomerular, cardiac and placental abnormalities

Mattias Bjarnegård et al. Development. 2004 Apr.

Abstract

Platelet-derived growth factor-B (PDGFB) is necessary for normal cardiovascular development, but the relative importance of different cellular sources of PDGFB has not been established. Using Cre-lox techniques, we show here that genetic ablation of Pdgfb in endothelial cells leads to impaired recruitment of pericytes to blood vessels. The endothelium-restricted Pdgfb knockout mutants also developed organ defects including cardiac, placental and renal abnormalities. These defects were similar to those observed in Pdgfb null mice. However, in marked contrast to the embryonic lethality of Pdgfb null mutants, the endothelium-specific mutants survived into adulthood with persistent pathological changes, including brain microhemorrhages, focal astrogliosis, and kidney glomerulus abnormalities. This spectrum of pathological changes is reminiscent of diabetic microangiopathy, suggesting that the endothelium-restricted Pdgfb knockouts may serve as models for some of the pathogenic events of vascular complications to diabetes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

Substances