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An RNA helicase swirls in lymphangiogenesis

Nature Cell Biology volume 23, pages 1109–1110 (2021)Cite this article

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How lymphatic vessels arise from veins is still poorly understood. A study reports the discovery of a ribosome biogenesis regulator Ddx21 as a previously unappreciated specific factor that is important for the first steps of lymphatic but not blood vessel development. The finding may lead to better strategies to selectively target lymphangiogenesis.

Zebrafish embryos have been extensively used as a model to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the origins of the lymphatic system, given the high conservation of this process in vertebrates. Previous genetic and live imaging studies in zebrafish have shown that different precursor endothelial cells sprout at the same time from the cardinal vein to form either venous intersegmental vessels or parachordal lymphatic vessels3. Several known factors that influence this initial lymphatic endothelial differentiation and growth include Prox-1 or Vegfr-3 (Flt4), as well as its ligand Vegfc (refs. 3,4), and mutations affecting their signalling have been identified as responsible for more than one-third of screened lymphedema cases5.

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Fig. 1: Discovery, mechanism and implications for the new findings on the role of Ddx21 in lymphangiogenesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Genetics of Angiogenesis Group, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid, Spain

    Severin Mühleder & Rui Benedito

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  1. Severin Mühleder
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  2. Rui Benedito
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Correspondence to Rui Benedito.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Mühleder, S., Benedito, R. An RNA helicase swirls in lymphangiogenesis. Nat Cell Biol 23, 1109–1110 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-021-00789-5

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