Intestinal and mesenteric artery formation by intestine-derived prearterial endothelial cells

The cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating arterial development remain little understood for most organs. Here, we show that a small subpopulation of endothelial cells inside the intestinal villi of the embryonic mouse, characterized by the expression of endothelial cell-specific molecule 1 (Esm1/endocan), serves as an arterial progenitor population. The specification of arterial progenitors is initiated inside the villus capillary network and contributes to the formation of intestinal and mesenteric arteries during development. E18.0 embryos were collected following Esm1-CreERT2-mediated lineage tracing for 24 hours. Unsorted total intestinal cells and unsorted total mesenteric cells were isolated from 3 pooled embryos and CD31+GFP+ and CD31+GFP- FACS-sorted intestinal blood ECs were isolated from 13 pooled embryos. Single cell RNA isolation was performed utilizing BD rhapsody.