Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.08.04.236182v1?rss=1 Authors: Alghanem, A. F., Ta, C., Maurer, J. M., Gunasekar, S. K., Kumar, A., Fatima, U., Kang, C., Xie, L., Adeola, O., Abello, J., Riker, M., Elliot-Hudson, M., Minerath, R. A., Stratman, A., Grueter, C. E., Mullins, R. F., Sah, R. Abstract: The endothelium responds to chemical and mechanical factors in regulating vascular tone, angiogenesis, blood pressure and blood flow. The endothelial volume regulatory anion channel (VRAC) has been proposed to be mechano-sensitive, to activate in response to fluid flow/hydrostatic pressure and putatively regulate vascular reactivity and angiogenesis. Here, we show that the Leucine Rich Repeat Containing Protein 8a, LRRC8a (SWELL1) functionally encodes VRAC in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Endothelial SWELL1 expression positively regulates AKT-eNOS signaling while negatively regulating mTOR signaling, via a SWELL1-GRB2-Cav1-eNOS signaling complex. Endothelium-restricted SWELL1 KO mice exhibit enhanced tube formation from ex-vivo aortic ring explants in matrigel angiogenesis assays, develop hypertension in response to chronic angiotensin II infusion and have impaired retinal blood flow with blood vessel narrowing in the setting of Type 2 diabetes (T2D). These data demonstrate that SWELL1 antithetically regulates AKT-eNOS and mTOR signaling in endothelium and is required for maintaining vascular function. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info