Abstract

Blood vessel development is an early and crucial phenomenon associated with the growth and survival of a vertebrate embryo. Blood vessel morphogenesis is driven by coordinated endothelial cell behaviours, which depend on dynamic cell-cell interactions. In this context, remodelling of endothelial cell-cell junctions promotes morphogenetic cellular events while preserving vascular integrity. How these processes interact is poorly understood. To gain a better understanding on cell junction dynamics we use in vivo time-lapse imaging on transgenic zebrafish lines. This talk will focus on how endothelial cell junctions deal with an expanding lumen during early vascular development and how junctional remodelling contributes to the observed variation in blood vessel architectures in the developing organs.