Mural cells contribute to stabilize blood vessels by regulating endothelial cell apoptosis

What is it about?

Mural cells, cells surrounding the endothelial cell lining of the blood vessel, are known to be important in maintaining vascular function and integrity. Mural cells have been shown to do so through the secretion of various growth factors promoting endothelial cell survival. We show in this paper that mural cells also directly inhibit endothelial cell apoptosis by regulating the expression of Fas (so called "death receptor" which induces endothelial cell death in response to extrinsic queues) in endothelial cells, adding another mechanism by which mural cells contribute to vascular integrity.

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Why is it important?

We devised an experimental model in which mural cell coverage can be directly and easily manipulated and show that mural cells induce a decrease in endothelial Fas expression, a change that is important for the induction and/or maintenance of vascular integrity.