Differentiation Trajectory of Limbal Stem and Progenitor Cells under Normal Homeostasis and upon Corneal Wounding

Public Deposited
Analytics

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Request Version for Screen Reader
Creator
  • Song, Zhenwei
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology
  • Chen, Brian
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Biostatistics
  • Tsai, Chi-Hao
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology
  • Wu, Di
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Biostatistics
  • Liu, Emily
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology
  • Hawkins, Isha Sharday
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology
  • Phan, Andrew
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
  • Auman, James Todd
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  • Tao, Yazhong
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  • Mei, Hua
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology
Abstract
  • Limbal stem cells (LSCs) reside discretely at limbus surrounded by niche cells and progenitor cells. The aim of this study is to identify the heterogeneous cell populations at limbus under normal homeostasis and upon wounding using single-cell RNA sequencing in a mouse model. Two putative LSC types were identified which showed a differentiation trajectory into limbal progenitor cell (LPC) types under normal homeostasis and during wound healing. They were designated as “putative active LSCs” and “putative quiescent LSCs”, respectively, because the former type actively divided upon wounding while the later type stayed at a quiescent status upon wounding. The “putative quiescent LSCs” might contribute to a barrier function due to their characteristic markers regulating vascular and epithelial barrier and growth. Different types of LPCs at different proliferative statuses were identified in unwounded and wounded corneas with distinctive markers. Four maturation markers (Aldh3, Slurp1, Tkt, and Krt12) were screened out for corneal epithelium, which showed an increased expression along the differentiation trajectory during corneal epithelial maturation. In conclusion, our study identified two different types of putative LSCs and several types of putative LPCs under normal homeostasis and upon wounding, which will facilitate the understanding of corneal epithelial regeneration and wound healing.
Date of publication
Keyword
DOI
Identifier
Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
License
  • Attribution 3.0 United States
Journal title
  • Cells
Journal volume
  • 11
Journal issue
  • 13
Page start
  • 1983
Language
  • English
Version
  • Publisher
ISSN
  • 2073-4409

Relations

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details cells-11-01983.pdf 2022-07-06 Public Download