Role of CCBE1 in lymphangiogenesis

描述（由申请人提供）：CCBE 1是最近发现的一种蛋白质，在患有严重遗传性皮肤和肠道肿胀的患者中发生突变，称为“淋巴水肿-淋巴管扩张-智力低下综合征”或亨内卡姆综合征。在这些患者中，存在着血管内分泌系统功能障碍，血管内分泌系统是一个中空的盲端管网络，它从身体组织收集血管外液体并将这些液体返回血液循环。CCBE 1如何调节淋巴功能仍然完全未知。在斑马鱼中，一种与小鱼有关的小型淡水鱼，ccbe 1基因的突变导致所有神经元缺失，严重肿胀，最终导致鱼类死亡。这些突变鱼与斑马鱼有惊人的相似之处，但不同的基因vegf-c被破坏了，vegf-c编码了以前已知的唯一一种特异性刺激神经生长的因子。因此，CCBE 1似乎是能够刺激淋巴生长的第二种蛋白质，与VEGF-C并排作用。这项工作旨在进一步探索CCBE 1在淋巴管生长中的作用，使用转基因小鼠和来自人类淋巴管的培养细胞。这些研究将集中于确定CCBE 1在皮肤中的作用，皮肤是一种在淋巴功能缺陷患者中受到严重影响的组织，特别是在Hennekam综合征中。 在这项工作中，我们将首先通过创建具有额外拷贝的Ccbe 1基因插入其DNA的小鼠来测试单独的CCBE 1是否足以刺激淋巴生长。这些额外的基因拷贝将被改造成仅在皮肤中产生额外的CCBE 1蛋白。我们将评估这些动物皮肤中的淋巴管，以确定额外的CCBE 1蛋白是否能够诱导淋巴管大小、数量或功能的变化。第二，我们将产生具有非功能性Ccbe 1基因的小鼠。我们将使用这些小鼠在所有组织中删除Ccbe 1，然后仅在皮肤中删除Ccbe 1，以检查哺乳动物淋巴发育和皮肤中对CCBE 1的需求。最后，我们将测试CCBE 1蛋白直接促进培养皿中淋巴管内皮细胞生长和存活的能力。在这个简化的系统中，我们将ccbe 1蛋白与从人类皮肤淋巴管中分离的细胞一起孵育。我们将仔细测量细胞生长、存活和内部信号的变化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): CCBE1 is a protein recently discovered to be mutated in patients with a severe inherited form of swelling in their skin and intestines known as "Lymphedema-lymphangiectasia-mental retardation syndrome" or Hennekam Syndrome. In these patients, there is dysfunction of the lymphatics, a network of hollow, blind-end tubes, which collect extravascular fluid from the tissues of the body and return this fluid to the blood circulation. How CCBE1 regulates lymphatic function remains completely unknown. In the zebrafish, a small freshwater fish related to the minnow, mutation of the ccbe1 gene leads to absence of all lymphatics, severe swelling, and ultimately death of the fish. These mutant fish have a striking similarity with zebrafish with disruption of a different gene, vegf-c, which encodes the only factor previously known to specifically stimulate growth of lymphatics. CCBE1, therefore, appears to be a second protein capable of stimulating lymphatic growth, acting side-by-side with VEGF-C. This work seeks to further explore the role of CCBE1 in lymphatic growth using genetically modified mice and cultured cells derived from human lymphatics. These studies will focus on defining the role of CCBE1 in the skin, a tissue severely affected in patients with defects in lymphatic function generally, and in Hennekam Syndrome specifically. In this work, we will first test if CCBE1 alone is sufficient to stimulate lymphatic growth by creating mice that have extra copies of the Ccbe1 gene inserted into their DNA. These additional copies of the gene will be engineered to produce additional CCBE1 protein in the skin only. We will evaluate the lymphatics in the skin of these animals to determine if the additional CCBE1protein is capable of inducing changes in lymphatic in size, number, or function. Secondly, we will we will generate mice with a non-functional Ccbe1 gene. We will use these mice to delete Ccbe1 both in all tissues and then the skin alone, to examine the requirement for CCBE1 in mammalian lymphatic development and in the skin specifically. Finally, we will test the ability of CCBE1 protein to directly promote growth and survival of lymphatic endothelial cells in a culture dish. In this simplified system, we will incubate ccbe1 protein with cells isolated from human skin lymphatic vessels. We will carefully measure changes in cell growth, survival, and internal signaling.