Theranostics 2023; 13(2):639-658. doi:10.7150/thno.79953 This issue Cite

Research Paper

Three-dimensional mapping of hepatic lymphatic vessels and transcriptome profiling of lymphatic endothelial cells in healthy and diseased livers

Songlin Huang1†, Borui Li1†, Zheng Liu1†, Mengli Xu1, Dong Lin1, Jiahong Hu1, Dongjian Cao1, Qi Pan1, Jing Zhang1, Jing Yuan1, Qingming Luo2✉, Zhihong Zhang1,2✉

1. Britton Chance Center and MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China
2. School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570228, China
† These authors contributed equally

Citation:
Huang S, Li B, Liu Z, Xu M, Lin D, Hu J, Cao D, Pan Q, Zhang J, Yuan J, Luo Q, Zhang Z. Three-dimensional mapping of hepatic lymphatic vessels and transcriptome profiling of lymphatic endothelial cells in healthy and diseased livers. Theranostics 2023; 13(2):639-658. doi:10.7150/thno.79953. https://www.thno.org/v13p0639.htm
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Abstract

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Rationale: Hepatic lymphatics are essential for liver homeostasis and immune function. However, the 3D structure and spatial distribution of hepatic lymphatic vessels (LVs) need to be confirmed. Moreover, the molecular information of hepatic lymphatic endothelial cells (LyECs) needs to be further studied. The bottleneck is the lack of specific markers or labeling methods for hepatic lymphatic endothelial cells (LyECs)

Methods: Here, we proposed a method for the spatiotemporal sequential injection of antibodies (STSI-Ab) to selectively label hepatic LyECs in vivo. In addition, we also developed an efficient hepatic LyEC sorting method and performed deep transcriptome sequencing on hepatic LyECs.

Results: The STSI-Ab method achieved selective labeling of the mouse hepatic lymphatic network. Three-dimensional fluorescence imaging results of the STSI-Ab mouse liver lobe clearly showed that hepatic LVs entangled with the portal vein but were not present in the central vein. The imaging data inspired a novel hepatic lobule structure model with an added set of LVs in the portal area. Furthermore, deep transcriptome sequencing of isolated hepatic LyECs and Masson's trichrome staining results suggested that hepatic LyECs might be an important source of collagen fibers deposited in the portal area during the process of liver fibrosis and bile duct ligation (BDL).

Conclusions: We proposed an STSI-Ab method for selectively labeling hepatic LVs, distinguishing the hepatic LVs from other vessels, and mapping their 3D structure. This study opens an avenue for understanding hepatic lymphatic structure and it will be very beneficial to the study of hepatic LyEC functions.

Keywords: hepatic lymphatic vessels, in vivo fluorescence labeling and 3D imaging, hepatic lymphatic endothelial cell isolation, transcriptome sequencing, liver disease


Citation styles

APA
Huang, S., Li, B., Liu, Z., Xu, M., Lin, D., Hu, J., Cao, D., Pan, Q., Zhang, J., Yuan, J., Luo, Q., Zhang, Z. (2023). Three-dimensional mapping of hepatic lymphatic vessels and transcriptome profiling of lymphatic endothelial cells in healthy and diseased livers. Theranostics, 13(2), 639-658. https://doi.org/10.7150/thno.79953.

ACS
Huang, S.; Li, B.; Liu, Z.; Xu, M.; Lin, D.; Hu, J.; Cao, D.; Pan, Q.; Zhang, J.; Yuan, J.; Luo, Q.; Zhang, Z. Three-dimensional mapping of hepatic lymphatic vessels and transcriptome profiling of lymphatic endothelial cells in healthy and diseased livers. Theranostics 2023, 13 (2), 639-658. DOI: 10.7150/thno.79953.

NLM
Huang S, Li B, Liu Z, Xu M, Lin D, Hu J, Cao D, Pan Q, Zhang J, Yuan J, Luo Q, Zhang Z. Three-dimensional mapping of hepatic lymphatic vessels and transcriptome profiling of lymphatic endothelial cells in healthy and diseased livers. Theranostics 2023; 13(2):639-658. doi:10.7150/thno.79953. https://www.thno.org/v13p0639.htm

CSE
Huang S, Li B, Liu Z, Xu M, Lin D, Hu J, Cao D, Pan Q, Zhang J, Yuan J, Luo Q, Zhang Z. 2023. Three-dimensional mapping of hepatic lymphatic vessels and transcriptome profiling of lymphatic endothelial cells in healthy and diseased livers. Theranostics. 13(2):639-658.

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