Efficient Assessment of Developmental, Surgical and Pathological Lymphangiogenesis Using a Lymphatic Reporter Mouse and Its Embryonic Stem Cells.

• Main Authors: Mingu Hong, Eunson Jung, Sara Yang, Wonhyuek Jung, Young Jin Seong, Eunkyung Park, Athanasios Bramos, Kyu Eui Kim, Sunju Lee, George Daghlian, Jung In Seo, Inho Choi, In-Seon Choi, Chester J Koh, Agnieszka Kobielak, Qi-Long Ying, Maxwell Johnson, Daniel Gardner, Alex K Wong, Dongwon Choi, Young-Kwon Hong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4900649?pdf=render

Several lymphatic reporter mouse lines have recently been developed to significantly improve imaging of lymphatic vessels. Nonetheless, the usage of direct visualization of lymphatic vessels has not been fully explored and documented. Here, we characterized a new Prox1-tdTomato transgenic lymphatic reporter mouse line, and demonstrated how this animal tool enables the researchers to efficiently assess developmental, surgical and pathological lymphangiogenesis by direct visualization of lymphatic vessels. Moreover, we have derived embryonic stem cells from this reporter line, and successfully differentiated them into lymphatic vessels in vivo. In conclusion, these experimental tools and techniques will help advance lymphatic research.