Circulation articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Functional implications of subarachnoid space anatomy remain unclear. Here, the authors show by human in vivo imaging that an intrathecal tracer propagates antegrade along the major cerebral arteries within a perivascular subarachnoid space facilitating tracer passage towards the brain.

    • Per Kristian Eide
    •  & Geir Ringstad

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Specialised pro-resolving lipid mediators can reduce inflammatory responses and may be active in lymphedema. Here the authors show that in a mouse model 15-LO derived lipid mediators are reduced during inflammation and that a lack of the 15-LO producing enzyme aggravated disease and addition of 15-LO enzyme or Treg cells reduced disease.

    • A. Zamora
    • , M. Nougué
    •  & B. Garmy-Susini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Endothelial Sirtuin1 downregulation in metabolic disorders causes vascular dysfunction and inflammation. Here, the authors show that deficiency of endothelial Sirtuin1, while having deleterious effects on the vasculature, stimulates skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity and improves glucose disposal.

    • Qiuxia Li
    • , Quanjiang Zhang
    •  & Kaikobad Irani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Highly efficient generation of platelets in the vasculature. Here, Zhao et al. show that the mouse platelet precursor cell, megakaryocytes, generate physiological numbers of functional platelets when passaged repeatedly through pulmonary vasculature.

    • Xiaojuan Zhao
    • , Dominic Alibhai
    •  & Alastair W. Poole

  • Article
    | Open Access

    SVEP1 is linked to numerous human diseases, though its disease-promoting mechanism has remained unclear. Here, the authors identify SVEP1 as a ligand for the orphan receptor PEAR1 and provide insight into the role of this interaction in cardiovascular disease.

    • Jared S. Elenbaas
    • , Upasana Pudupakkam
    •  & Nathan O. Stitziel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In mammals, hypoxia causes dilation of small arteries for increased metabolic demand. Keller et al used novel transgenic mice to show alpha hemoglobin in endothelium, once thought only in red blood cells, can regulate hypoxic-mediated dilation.

    • T. C. Stevenson Keller IV
    • , Christophe Lechauve
    •  & Brant E. Isakson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During blood vessel development, endothelial cells become specified toward arterial or venous fates. Chavkin et al find that distinct endothelial cell cycle states provide windows of opportunity for the molecular induction of arterial or venous fate.

    • Nicholas W. Chavkin
    • , Gael Genet
    •  & Karen K. Hirschi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aortic distensibility is a risk factor for multiple cardiovascular events, but the genetic etiology is not well understood. Here, the authors identify genetic variants linked to aortic distensibility, highlighting mechanistic pathways and causal relationships between distensibility and both aortic aneurysms and brain small vessel disease.

    • Catherine M. Francis
    • , Matthias E. Futschik
    •  & Paul M. Matthews

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanism of neurovascular coupling ensures that the brain energy supply is sufficient to meet demand. Here the authors show that in this mechanism CO2 plays an important role in neuronal activity-dependent regulation of local brain blood flow.

    • Patrick S. Hosford
    • , Jack A. Wells
    •  & Alexander V. Gourine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Physiological matching of blood flow to the demand for oxygen by the heart is required for sustained cardiac health, yet the underlying mechanisms are obscure. Here, the authors report a key role for acute modifications to the redox state of intracellular pyridine nucleotides in coronary smooth muscle and their impact on voltage-gated K + channels in metabolic vasodilation

    • Marc M. Dwenger
    • , Sean M. Raph
    •  & Matthew A. Nystoriak

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Defective angiogenesis remains a high source of morbidity in multiple disorders. Here they show that βIV-spectrin, a membrane-associated cytoskeletal protein, is essential for regulation of endothelial tip cell populations and VEGF signaling during sprouting angiogenesis.

    • Eun-A Kwak
    • , Christopher C. Pan
    •  & Nam Y. Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blood microcirculation supplies neurons with oxygen and nutrients, and contributes to clearing their neurotoxic waste. Here, the authors analyse blood flow simulations to establish the physical laws linking the microvascular architecture to the macroscopic transport properties that control oxygen supply and waste clearance.

    • Florian Goirand
    • , Tanguy Le Borgne
    •  & Sylvie Lorthois

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vascularization is critical for cranial bone growth, maintenance, and healing, but it remains unknown how blood vessels are spatially distributed in the calvarium, and how they interact with skeletal progenitors during these processes. Here, the authors apply a quantitative light-sheet imaging platform to visualize and analyze the relationship between blood vessels and skeletal progenitors throughout the murine calvarium.

    • Alexandra N. Rindone
    • , Xiaonan Liu
    •  & Warren L. Grayson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing effective treatments for noncompressible hemorrhages remains a challenge. Here the authors engineer alkylated chitosan sponges with highly interconnective microchannels and demonstrate anti-infective activity, as well as higher pro-coagulant, hemostatic and wound healing capacities compared to clinically-used materials in rat and pig liver models.

    • Xinchen Du
    • , Le Wu
    •  & Meifeng Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metals such as calcium and potassium have long been known to regulate the diameter of arteries that control blood flow. Here, we report that zinc causes relaxation of blood vessels and reduces blood pressure by its coordinated action in sensory nerves, endothelium and smooth muscle cells.

    • Ashenafi H. Betrie
    • , James A. Brock
    •  & Scott Ayton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Endothelial tissues must have intact barrier function, but this may be disrupted during inflammation. Here, the authors show that the mitochondrial protein Mitofusin-2 stabilizes cell–cell adherens junctions in endothelial cells during homeostasis and binds the transcriptional activator β-catenin upon inflammatory stimulation.

    • Young-Mee Kim
    • , Sarah Krantz
    •  & Jalees Rehman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The network of proteins secreted for interorgan communication is poorly understood. Here, the authors develop a method, based on protein labeling, to study cell-specific secretomes and interorgan protein trafficking, and demonstrate their approach in Drosophila and mouse models.

    • Ilia A. Droujinine
    • , Amanda S. Meyer
    •  & Norbert Perrimon

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The kidneys, which have a very high metabolic rate, play a fundamental role in blood pressure regulation. In this review, the authors discuss recent studies on the role of renal metabolism in the development of hypertension.

    • Zhongmin Tian
    •  & Mingyu Liang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theta and gamma rhythms are essential to ensure timely communication between brain structures during locomotion. Here the authors investigate the association between cerebral blood flow and neural oscillations in freely behaving mice running a linear track.

    • Antoine Bergel
    • , Elodie Tiran
    •  & Ivan Cohen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monitoring hemodynamics in the brain is important in understanding medical imaging data and mechanisms of disease. Here the authors use high-throughput two-photon microscopy with an axially-extended Bessel focus to measure vessel size and blood flow down to capillary scale in the awake mouse brain.

    • Jiang Lan Fan
    • , Jose A. Rivera
    •  & Na Ji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Breakdown of vascular barriers is a major complication of inflammatory diseases. However, the mechanisms underlying platelet recruitment to inflammatory micro-environments remains unclear. Here, the authors identify haptotaxis as a key effector function of immune-responsive platelets

    • Leo Nicolai
    • , Karin Schiefelbein
    •  & Florian Gaertner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Clinical neuroprotective strategies for acute spinal cord injury (SCI) have largely overlooked the heart. Here the authors show cardiac contractility is immediately impaired in a porcine model of T2 SCI, and cardio-centric treatment with dobutamine optimizes cord oxygenation and mitigates haemorrhage.

    • Alexandra M. Williams
    • , Neda Manouchehri
    •  & Christopher R. West

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is one of the most lethal gastrointestinal emergencies in neonates needing precision treatment. Here the authors show that remote ischemic conditioning is a non-invasive therapeutic method that enhances blood flow in the intestine, reduces damage, and improves NEC outcome.

    • Yuhki Koike
    • , Bo Li
    •  & Agostino Pierro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Early stages of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been associated with silent hypoxia and poor oxygenation despite relatively small fractions of afflicted lung. Here, the authors present a mathematical model which reproduces the vascular pulmonary mechanisms observed in patients with early COVID-19.

    • Jacob Herrmann
    • , Vitor Mori
    •  & Béla Suki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Myeloid cells are involved in hypertension, but their exact role in renin-induced hypertension remains unclear. Here the authors show that impaired vitamin D signaling in myeloid cells causes hypertension via macrophage-specific miR-106b-5p secretion, which activates renin production in the kidney.

    • J. Oh
    • , S. J. Matkovich
    •  & C. Bernal-Mizrachi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extravasated erythrocytes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) contribute to the pathogenesis of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). Here, the authors show that meningeal lymphatics drain extravasated erythorcytes and that blockage of this drainage aggravates SAH severity.

    • Jinman Chen
    • , Linmei Wang
    •  & Yongjun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The brain receives 20% of cardiac output, but in accord with the current knowledge lacks a specialized sensor of its own blood flow. Here, the authors show that brain astrocytes detect drops in perfusion and trigger compensatory increases in arterial pressure and heart rate to preserve brain blood flow and oxygen delivery.

    • Nephtali Marina
    • , Isabel N. Christie
    •  & Alexander V. Gourine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The plasma metalloprotease ADAMTS13 regulates the platelet-tethering function of von Willebrand factor (VWF) in a shear-dependent manner. Here the authors present the ADAMTS13 crystal structure of the 70kDa N-terminal metalloprotease to spacer domains, and using kinetic measurements they identify a substrate binding induced allosteric mechanism for ADAMTS13, where VWF functions both as an activating cofactor and substrate.

    • Anastasis Petri
    • , Hyo Jung Kim
    •  & James T. B. Crawley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Individuals carrying a gain-of-function mutation in PKG1 develop thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections. Here Schwaerzer et al. show that mice carrying the same mutation recapitulate the human disease, and find that treatment with anti-oxidants including cobinamide, a vitamin B12 analog, prevents disease progression.

    • Gerburg K. Schwaerzer
    • , Hema Kalyanaraman
    •  & Renate B. Pilz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs inhibiting COX-1/2 is associated with an increased risk of heart failure. Here the authors show that mPGES-1, a therapeutic target downstream of COX enzymes, protects from cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury, limiting leukocyte-endothelial interactions and preserving microvascular perfusion partly via the endothelial EP4 receptor.

    • Liyuan Zhu
    • , Chuansheng Xu
    •  & Miao Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and more than 200 genetic loci associated with BP are known. Here, the authors perform discovery GWAS for BP in East Asians and meta-analysis in East Asians and Europeans and report ancestry-specific BP SNPs and selection signals.

    • Fumihiko Takeuchi
    • , Masato Akiyama
    •  & Norihiro Kato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sepsis is a life-threatening condition where exaggerated inflammatory responses lead to severe tissue damage. Here, Rayes and colleagues show that the interaction between podoplanin and its receptor CLEC-2 on platelets plays a critical role in limiting inflammation during sepsis.

    • Julie Rayes
    • , Siân Lax
    •  & Steve P. Watson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Circadian rhythms usually rely on cyclic variations in gene expression. Red blood cells, however, display circadian rhythms while being devoid of nuclear DNA. Here, Henslee and colleagues show that circadian rhythms in isolated human red blood cells are dependent on rhythmic transport of K+ ions.

    • Erin A. Henslee
    • , Priya Crosby
    •  & Fatima H. Labeed

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The arterial wall is subjected to mechanical forces that modulate endothelial cell responses. Here, Mack and colleagues identify a novel role for Notch1 as a mechanosensor in adult arteries, where it ensures junctional integrity through modulation of calcium signalling and limits atherosclerosis.

    • Julia J. Mack
    • , Thiago S. Mosqueiro
    •  & M. Luisa Iruela-Arispe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blood clot contraction is a cellular (patho)physiological process essential for wound healing, hemostasis, and thrombosis. Here, the authors describe the physical structural mechanism by which platelet filopodia pull “hand-over-hand” on fibrin fibers to compact them into bundled agglomerates.

    • Oleg V. Kim
    • , Rustem I. Litvinov
    •  & John W. Weisel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A major drawback in the clinical use of the oral anticoagulants that directly inhibit factor Xa in order to prevent blood clot formation is the potential for life threatening bleeding events. Here the authors describe factor Xa variants that are refractory to inhibition by these anticoagulants and could serve as rescue agents in treated patients.

    • Daniël Verhoef
    • , Koen M. Visscher
    •  & Mettine H. A. Bos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Numerous genetic variants, including those located in the non-coding regions of the genome, are known to be associated with blood cells traits. Here, Frontini and colleagues investigate their potential regulatory functions using epigenomic data and promoter long-range interactions.

    • Romina Petersen
    • , John J. Lambourne
    •  & Mattia Frontini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dysfunction of autophagy in plaque macrophages aggravates atherosclerosis. Here the authors show that induction of macrophage autophagy–lysosomal biogenesis either genetically by overexpression of the master transcriptional regulator of this process, TFEB, or pharmacologically with trehalose is atheroprotective.

    • Ismail Sergin
    • , Trent D. Evans
    •  & Babak Razani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The binding of the leukocyte integrin Mac1 to the platelet receptor GPIbα is important for the physiological response to tissue injury. Here the authors show that this interaction also regulates thrombosis, without influencing bleeding time, which may provide clues for the development of new anti-thrombotic drugs.

    • Yunmei Wang
    • , Huiyun Gao
    •  & Daniel I. Simon

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