© Raphael Schleutker

Research Topic

We are interested in the morphogenetic processes that shape and maintain the vascular systems. We focus especially on lymphatic vessels, during development1, 2 but also in healthy and diseased adult life3. In particular, we are interested in the interplay of blood and lymph vessels, tissue oxygenation (or the lack thereof called hypoxia) and leukocytes and the relevance of this finely balanced system for organ function in developmental and pathological settings4. Our work rests on the intense use and refinement of innovative microscopic approaches, relying heavily on multiphoton and light sheet microscopy5, 6. We combine these imaging modalities with reporter mouse models to visualize the interactions between, vessels, leukocytes and tissue parenchyma three dimensionally in the context of large tissue volumes or longitudinally in the living organism.

Selected Publications

  • Macchi, M., Magalon, K., Zimmer, C., Peeva, E., El Waly, B., Brousse, B., Jaekel, S., Grobe, K., Kiefer, F., Williams, A., et al. (2020). Mature oligodendrocytes bordering lesions limit demyelination and favor myelin repair via heparan sulfate production. Elife 9.
  • Bovay, E., Sabine, A., Prat-Luri, B., Kim, S., Son, K., Willrodt, A.H., Olsson, C., Halin, C., Kiefer, F., Betsholtz, C., et al. (2018). Multiple roles of lymphatic vessels in peripheral lymph node development. J Exp Med 215, 2760-2777.
  • Frye, M., Taddei, A., Dierkes, C., Martinez-Corral, I., Fielden, M., Ortsater, H., Kazenwadel, J., Calado, D.P., Ostergaard, P., Salminen, M., et al. (2018). Matrix stiffness controls lymphatic vessel formation through regulation of a GATA2-dependent transcriptional program. Nat Commun 9, 1511.
  • Hagerling, R., Hoppe, E., Dierkes, C., Stehling, M., Makinen, T., Butz, S., Vestweber, D., and Kiefer, F. (2018). Distinct roles of VE-cadherin for development and maintenance of specific lymph vessel beds. EMBO J 37.
  • Orlich, M., and Kiefer, F. (2018). A qualitative comparison of ten tissue clearing techniques. Histol Histopathol 33, 181-199.
  • Hagerling, R., Drees, D., Scherzinger, A., Dierkes, C., Martin-Almedina, S., Butz, S., Gordon, K., Schafers, M., Hinrichs, K., Ostergaard, P., et al. (2017). VIPAR, a quantitative approach to 3D histopathology applied to lymphatic malformations. JCI Insight 2.
  • Weis, V., Konigsberger, S., Amler, S., Wienands, J., and Kiefer, F. (2017). Unperturbed Immune Function despite Mutation of C-Terminal Tyrosines in Syk Previously Implicated in Signaling and Activity Regulation. Mol Cell Biol 37, e00216-00217.
  • Erapaneedi, R., Belousov, V.V., Schafers, M., and Kiefer, F. (2016). A novel family of fluorescent hypoxia sensors reveal strong heterogeneity in tumor hypoxia at the cellular level. EMBO J 35, 102-113.
  • Hagerling, R., Pollmann, C., Andreas, M., Schmidt, C., Nurmi, H., Adams, R.H., Alitalo, K., Andresen, V., Schulte-Merker, S., and Kiefer, F. (2013). A novel multistep mechanism for initial lymphangiogenesis in mouse embryos based on ultramicroscopy. EMBO J 32, 629-644.
  • Bohmer, R., Neuhaus, B., Buhren, S., Zhang, D., Stehling, M., Bock, B., and Kiefer, F. (2010). Regulation of developmental lymphangiogenesis by Syk(+) leukocytes. Dev Cell 18, 437-449.