PhD Student Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (SIBCB), China
Abstract: Branching morphogenesis represents a fundamental biological process observed across multiple organ systems, including the lung, kidney, mammary gland, and vasculature. While core regulatory signaling pathways governing the individual branching event have been identified in various organs, how thousands of branches become coordinated at the organ scale remains incompletely understood. Here, we constructed and systematically analyzed the 3D hepatic vascular trees from mouse livers. Our data revealed that terminal branches of hepatic vascular trees exhibited a conserved 90-degree branching angle and uniform spatial distribution. To elucidate the principle of the morphogenesis of hepatic vascular trees, we developed a space-filling model mediated by attractor induced vascular branching. This framework successfully recapitulated the observed 90-degree terminal branching angle and uniform spatial distribution, validating space-filling as the governing principle of hepatic vascular patterning. Furthermore, we identified involvement of the Wnt-β-catenin signaling pathway in regulating vascular branching events. These findings collectively demonstrate that complex hepatic vascular trees develop through a space-filling mechanism, with Wnt signaling potentially serving as a candidate attractor molecule in the mouse liver.
