Research
Regulation of plasticity in cardiovascular health and disease
Tissue homeostasis and regeneration after injury rely on mobilisation of tissue resident stem and progenitor cells or de-differentiation of functional cell types. Our group investigates the regulation of such cell plasticity in the cardiovascular system and how this is perturbed in disease. Our recent work demonstrates that a small number of cells proliferate extensively to form lesions in vascular disease models.
Selected References
Clement, M.*/Chappell, J.*, Raffort, J., Lareyre, F., Vandestienne, M., Taylor, A.L., Finigan, A., Harrison, J, Bennett, M.R., Taleb,S., Jorgensen, H.F.#/Mallat, Z#. Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Plasticity and Autophagy in Dissecting Aortic Aneurysms. *Joint first authors. #Joint last authors. ATVB, Online Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.1161/ATVBAHA.118.311727.
Dobnikar, L.*/Taylor, A.L.*, Chappell, J., Oldach, P., Harman, J.L., Oerton, E., Dzierzak, E., Bennett, M.R., Spivakov, M.#/Jørgensen, H.F.# (2018). Disease-relevant transcriptional signatures identified in individual smooth muscle cells from healthy mouse vessels. Nature Communications, 9, 4567. *Joint first authors. #Joint last authors.
Tomaz, R.A., Harman, J.L., Karimlou, D., Weavers, L., Fritsch, L., Bou-Kheir, T., Bell, E., Torres, I.D.V., Niakan, K.K., Fisher, C., Joshi O., Stunnenberg H.G., Curry E., Ait-Si-Ali S., Jørgensen H.F., Azuara V. (2017). Jmjd2c/Kdm4c facilitates the assembly of essential enhancer-protein complexes at the onset of embryonic stem cell differentiation. Development, 144, 567-79.
Chappell, J., Harman, J.L., Narasimhan, V.M., Yu, H., Foote, K., Simons, B.D., Bennett, M.R., and Jørgensen, H.F. (2016). Extensive Proliferation of a Subset of Differentiated, yet Plastic, Medial Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Contributes to Neointimal Formation in Mouse Injury and Atherosclerosis Models. Circulation Research, 119, 1313–1323.