Collagen cross-linking inhibition and reduced collagen 1α2 impair blood vessel formation. Vascular development (ECs - green) in the zebrafish embryo at 5dpf in a control animals (a, a’, a’’ and c, c’, c’’) versus BAPN-treated (b, b’, b’’) and NFP-treated (d, d’, d’’) animals is documented. a’/a’’ shows normal caudal plexus formation with horizontal capillaries connecting the intersegmental vessels (ISV; a’, a’’, white arrow) and subintestinal vein (SIV) (a’, asterisk). The BAPN-treated animals show an underdeveloped plexus with absent SIV (b’, asterisk) and an impairment in the formation of capillaries connecting ISV (b’, b’’, red arrows). c–c’’ show normal caudal plexus formation with capillaries connecting ISV (white arrows) and multiple active cells producing collagen 1α2 (in red). Upon NFP treatment, active collagen 1α2 producing cells are absent (d–d’’) and the formation of horizontal capillaries connecting the ISV is impaired (d’, d’’, red arrows). ISV - intersegmental vessels, SIV - subintestinal vein; images are acquired by fluorescent reflected light microscopy.
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