Live Imaging of Angiogenesis during Wound Healing

Repair of injured tissues requires angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones. Cutaneous wound healing is a complex and dynamic process by which skin tissue repairs itself after injury; however, how endothelial cells and pericytes form new blood vessels during cutaneous wound angiogenesis remains unclear. We recently developed a fluorescence-based live imaging system to analyze cutaneous wound angiogenesis in adult zebrafish. Employing this system, we found that endothelial cells and pericytes remain in a quiescent state in normal skin tissue, whereas cutaneous injury immediately activates both types of cells to induce angiogenesis. At 2 days post-injury (dpi), the injured vessels elongated, and some uninjured vessels became tortuous and began to sprout new branches. Then, vessel sprouting, elongation, bifurcation, and anastomosis progressively occurred to form the tortuous and disorganized vascular networks observed at 6 dpi. Thereafter, blood vessel tortuosity gradually decreased through the regression of excessive vessels, thereby leading to the formation of well-organized vessel networks at 42 dpi. Pericytes are thought to detach from the vessel wall to promote endothelial cell sprouting upon the induction of angiogenesis. However, not only endothelial cells but also pericytes proliferated to form pericyte-covered tortuous blood vessels in response to cutaneous injury, revealing an unexpected role of pericytes in cutaneous wound angiogenesis. Therefore, this live-imaging system for adult zebrafish is anticipated to make a valuable contribution to research advancements in understanding the angiogenesis that occurs during tissue repair.