Requirement for Integrin-linked kinase in neural crest migration and differentiation and outflow tract morphogenesis.

Background Neural crest defects lead to congenital heart disease involving outflow tract malformation. Integrin-linked-Kinase (ILK) plays important roles in multiple cellular processes and embryogenesis. ILK is expressed in neural crest, but its role in neural crest and outflow tract morphogenesis remains unknown. Results We ablated ILK specifically in neural crest by Wnt1-Cre. ILK ablation resulted in abnormal migration and overpopulation of neural crest cells in the pharyngeal arches and outflow tract and a significant reduction in the expression of Ncam and extracellular matrix components. ILK mutant embryos exhibited an enlarged common arterial trunk and ventricular septal defect. Reduced smooth muscle differentiation, but increased ossification and neurogenesis/innervation were observed in ILK mutant outflow tract that may partly be due to reduced TGFß2 but increased BMP signaling. Consistent with these observations, microarray analysis of FACS sorted neural crest cells revealed reduced expression of genes associated with muscle differentiation, but increased expression of genes of neurogenesis and osteogenesis. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that ILK plays essential roles in neural crest and outflow tract development by mediating complex crosstalk between cell-matrix and multiple signaling pathways. Changes in these pathways may collectively result in the unique neural crest and outflow tract phenotypes observed in ILK mutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]