(104g) Invited Speaker: The Impact of Physicochemical Cues during Vascular Differentiation and Morphogenesis

Vascular differentiation and formation (morphogenesis) takes place in an intricate milieu. This unique microenvironment is situated throughout the body in diverse types of healthy tissues, yet it seems to activates/inhibits similar mechanisms of the microvasculature. Two parameters of this microenvironment seem critical for blood vessel growth and stabilization: (i) the extracellular matrix, which provides critical support for vascular cell adhesion, proliferation, migration, and morphogenesis, and (ii) low oxygen concentrations (hypoxia), which is a critical factor promoting vascularization during embryonic development and tumor growth. In this talk I will present our recent efforts to understand how these physicochemical cues and downstream signaling pathways impact vascular fate and assembly from progenitors and pluripotent stem cells.