caa a22 4500 528785982 20190713030955.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180924s2016 xx s 000 0 eng 10.3929/ethz-b-000124146 doi 10.1038/ncomms13560 doi (ETHRESEARCH)oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/124146 The biomechanical properties of an epithelial tissue determine the location of its vasculature [Elektronische Daten] [Martin Kragl, Rajib Schubert, Haiko Karsjens, Silke Otter, Barbara Bartosinska, Kay Jeruschke, Jürgen Weiss, Chunguang Chen, David Alsteens, Oliver Kuss, Stephan Speier, Daniel Eberhard, Daniel J.; id_orcid 0000-0003-3075-0665 Müller, Eckhard Lammert] Nat Commun Open access ethresearch An important question is how growing tissues establish a blood vessel network. Here we study vascular network formation in pancreatic islets, endocrine tissues derived from pancreatic epithelium. We find that depletion of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) in the pancreatic epithelial cells of mice results in glucose intolerance due to a loss of the intra-islet vasculature. In turn, blood vessels accumulate at the islet periphery. Neither alterations in endothelial cell proliferation, apoptosis, morphology, Vegfa expression and VEGF-A secretion nor ‘empty sleeves' of vascular basement membrane are found. Instead, biophysical experiments reveal that the biomechanical properties of pancreatic islet cells, such as their actomyosin-mediated cortex tension and adhesive forces to endothelial cells, are significantly changed. These results suggest that a sorting event is driving the segregation of endothelial and epithelial cells and indicate that the epithelial biomechanical properties determine whether the blood vasculature invades or envelops a growing epithelial tissue. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 ethresearch Kragl Martin joint author Schubert Rajib joint author Karsjens Haiko joint author Otter Silke joint author Bartosinska Barbara joint author Jeruschke Kay joint author Weiss Jürgen joint author Chen Chunguang joint author Alsteens David joint author Kuss Oliver joint author Speier Stephan joint author Eberhard Daniel joint author Müller Daniel J.; id_orcid 0000-0003-3075-0665 joint author Lammert Eckhard joint author Nature Communications London : Nature Publishing Group 7, p. 13560 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/124146 text/html WWW-Backlink auf das Repository (Open access) 1 Journal Article ethresearch ETHRESEARCH 856 40 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/124146 text/html WWW-Backlink auf das Repository (Open access) ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Kragl Martin joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Schubert Rajib joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Karsjens Haiko joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Otter Silke joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Bartosinska Barbara joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Jeruschke Kay joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Weiss Jürgen joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Chen Chunguang joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Alsteens David joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Kuss Oliver joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Speier Stephan joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Eberhard Daniel joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Müller Daniel J.; id_orcid 0000-0003-3075-0665 joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Lammert Eckhard joint author ETHRESEARCH 773 0- Nature Communications London : Nature Publishing Group 7, p. 13560 2041-1723 BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 ETHRESEARCH ETHRESEARCH ETHRESEARCH Journal Article Open access