Single nuclei transcriptomics of the in situ human limbal stem cell niche.


Journal

Scientific reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Titre abrégé: Sci Rep
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101563288

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
21 Mar 2024
Historique:
received: 06 09 2023
accepted: 15 03 2024
medline: 22 3 2024
pubmed: 22 3 2024
entrez: 22 3 2024
Statut: epublish

Résumé

The corneal epithelium acts as a barrier to pathogens entering the eye; corneal epithelial cells are continuously renewed by uni-potent, quiescent limbal stem cells (LSCs) located at the limbus, where the cornea transitions to conjunctiva. There has yet to be a consensus on LSC markers and their transcriptome profile is not fully understood, which may be due to using cadaveric tissue without an intact stem cell niche for transcriptomics. In this study, we addressed this problem by using single nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNAseq) on healthy human limbal tissue that was immediately snap-frozen after excision from patients undergoing cataract surgery. We identified the quiescent LSCs as a sub-population of corneal epithelial cells with a low level of total transcript counts. Moreover, TP63, KRT15, CXCL14, and ITGβ4 were found to be highly expressed in LSCs and transiently amplifying cells (TACs), which constitute the corneal epithelial progenitor populations at the limbus. The surface markers SLC6A6 and ITGβ4 could be used to enrich human corneal epithelial cell progenitors, which were also found to specifically express the putative limbal progenitor cell markers MMP10 and AC093496.1.

Identifiants

pubmed: 38514716
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-57242-4
pii: 10.1038/s41598-024-57242-4
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

6749

Informations de copyright

© 2024. The Author(s).

Références

Cotsarelis, G., Cheng, S. Z., Dong, G., Sun, T. T. & Lavker, R. M. Existence of slow-cycling limbal epithelial basal cells that can be preferentially stimulated to proliferate: implications on epithelial stem cells. Cell 57, 201–209 (1989).
doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90958-6 pubmed: 2702690
Di Girolamo, N. et al. Tracing the fate of limbal epithelial progenitor cells in the murine cornea. Stem Cells 33, 157–169 (2015).
doi: 10.1002/stem.1769 pubmed: 24966117
Amitai-Lange, A. et al. Lineage tracing of stem and progenitor cells of the murine corneal epithelium. Stem Cells 33, 230–239 (2015).
doi: 10.1002/stem.1840 pubmed: 25187087
Parfitt, G. J. et al. Immunofluorescence tomography of mouse ocular surface epithelial stem cells and their Niche microenvironment. Investig. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 56, 7338–7344 (2015).
doi: 10.1167/iovs.15-18038
Schlötzer-Schrehardt, U. & Kruse, F. E. Identification and characterization of limbal stem cells. Exp. Eye Res. 81, 247–264 (2005).
doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2005.02.016 pubmed: 16051216
Sartaj, R. et al. Characterization of slow cycling corneal limbal epithelial cells identifies putative stem cell markers. Sci. Rep. 7, 3793 (2017).
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-04006-y pubmed: 28630424 pmcid: 5476663
Haagdorens, M. et al. Limbal stem cell deficiency: Current treatment options and emerging therapies. Stem Cells Int. 2016, 9798374 (2016).
doi: 10.1155/2016/9798374 pubmed: 26788074
Pellegrini, G. et al. Navigating market authorization: The path holoclar took to become the first stem cell product approved in the European Union. Stem Cells Transl Med 7, 146–154 (2018).
doi: 10.1002/sctm.17-0003 pubmed: 29280318
Joe, A. W. & Yeung, S. N. Concise review: Identifying limbal stem cells: classical concepts and new challenges. Stem Cells Transl. Med. 3, 318–322 (2014).
doi: 10.5966/sctm.2013-0137 pubmed: 24327757
Sacchetti, M., Rama, P., Bruscolini, A. & Lambiase, A. Limbal stem cell transplantation: Clinical results, limits, and perspectives. Stem Cells Int. 2018, 8086269 (2018).
doi: 10.1155/2018/8086269 pubmed: 30405723 pmcid: 6201383
Dua, H. S. & Azuara-Blanco, A. Limbal stem cells of the corneal epithelium. Surv. Ophthalmol. 44, 415–425 (2000).
doi: 10.1016/S0039-6257(00)00109-0 pubmed: 10734241
Chee, K. Y. H., Kicic, A. & Wiffen, S. J. Limbal stem cells: The search for a marker. Clin. Exp. Ophthalmol. 34, 64–73 (2006).
doi: 10.1111/j.1442-9071.2006.01147.x pubmed: 16451261
Ebrahimi, M., Taghi-Abadi, E. & Baharvand, H. Limbal stem cells in review. J. Ophthalmic Vis. Res. 4, 40–58 (2009).
pubmed: 23056673 pmcid: 3448387
Ksander, B. R. et al. ABCB5 is a limbal stem cell gene required for corneal development and repair. Nature 511, 353–357 (2014).
doi: 10.1038/nature13426 pubmed: 25030174 pmcid: 4246512
Mikhailova, A. et al. Comparative proteomics reveals human pluripotent stem cell-derived limbal epithelial stem cells are similar to native ocular surface epithelial cells. Sci. Rep. 5, 14684 (2015).
doi: 10.1038/srep14684 pubmed: 26423138 pmcid: 4589773
Mei, H., Nakatsu, M. N., Baclagon, E. R. & Deng, S. X. Frizzled 7 maintains the undifferentiated state of human limbal stem/progenitor cells. Stem Cells 32, 938–945 (2014).
doi: 10.1002/stem.1582 pubmed: 24170316
Rama, P. et al. Limbal stem-cell therapy and long-term corneal regeneration. N. Engl. J. Med. 363, 147–155 (2010).
doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa0905955 pubmed: 20573916
Barbaro, V. et al. C/EBPδ regulates cell cycle and self-renewal of human limbal stem cells. J. Cell. Biol. 177, 1037–1049 (2007).
doi: 10.1083/jcb.200703003 pubmed: 17562792 pmcid: 2064364
Collins, P. J. et al. Epithelial chemokine CXCL14 synergizes with CXCL12 via allosteric modulation of CXCR4. FASEB J. 31, 3084–3097 (2017).
doi: 10.1096/fj.201700013R pubmed: 28360196 pmcid: 5472405
Ligocki, A. J. et al. Molecular characteristics and spatial distribution of adult human corneal cell subtypes. Sci. Rep. 11, 16323 (2021).
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-94933-8 pubmed: 34381080 pmcid: 8357950
Li, J. et al. S100A expression in normal corneal-limbal epithelial cells and ocular surface squamous cell carcinoma tissue. Mol. Vis. 17, 2263–2271 (2011).
pubmed: 21897749 pmcid: 3164687
Ojeda, A. F., Munjaal, R. P. & Lwigale, P. Y. Expression of CXCL12 and CXCL14 during eye development in chick and mouse. Gene Expr. Patterns 13, 303–310 (2013).
doi: 10.1016/j.gep.2013.05.006 pubmed: 23727298
Hayashi, R. et al. Coordinated generation of multiple ocular-like cell lineages and fabrication of functional corneal epithelial cell sheets from human iPS cells. Nat. Protoc. 12, 683–696 (2017).
doi: 10.1038/nprot.2017.007 pubmed: 28253236
Sagga, N., Kuffová, L., Vargesson, N., Erskine, L. & Collinson, J. M. Limbal epithelial stem cell activity and corneal epithelial cell cycle parameters in adult and aging mice. Stem Cell Res. 33, 185–198 (2018).
doi: 10.1016/j.scr.2018.11.001 pubmed: 30439642 pmcid: 6288239
Català, P. et al. Single cell transcriptomics reveals the heterogeneity of the human cornea to identify novel markers of the limbus and stroma. Sci. Rep. 11, 21727 (2021).
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01015-w pubmed: 34741068 pmcid: 8571304
Collin, J. et al. A single cell atlas of human cornea that defines its development, limbal progenitor cells and their interactions with the immune cells. Ocul. Surf. 21, 279–298 (2021).
doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2021.03.010 pubmed: 33865984 pmcid: 8343164
Chen, J. et al. Targeting matrix metalloproteases in diabetic wound healing. Front. Immunol. 14, (2023).
Li, D.-Q. et al. Single-cell transcriptomics identifies limbal stem cell population and cell types mapping its differentiation trajectory in limbal basal epithelium of human cornea. Ocul. Surf. 20, 20–32 (2021).
doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2020.12.004 pubmed: 33388438 pmcid: 8359589
Rong, L., Wang, L., Shuai, Y., Guo, H. & Liu, K. CXCL14 regulates cell proliferation, invasion, migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Biotechnol. Biotechnol. Equip. 33, 1335–1342 (2019).
doi: 10.1080/13102818.2019.1664930
Shellenberger, T. D. et al. BRAK/CXCL14 is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis and a chemotactic factor for immature dendritic cells. Cancer Res. 64, 8262–8270 (2004).
doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-04-2056 pubmed: 15548693
Parapuram, S. K., Huh, K., Liu, S. & Leask, A. Integrin β1 is necessary for the maintenance of corneal structural integrity. Investig. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 52, 7799–7806 (2011).
doi: 10.1167/iovs.10-6945
Wolock, S. L., Lopez, R. & Klein, A. M. Scrublet: Computational identification of cell doublets in single-cell transcriptomic data. Cell Syst. 8, 281-291.e9 (2019).
doi: 10.1016/j.cels.2018.11.005 pubmed: 30954476 pmcid: 6625319
Lun, A. T. L., McCarthy, D. J. & Marioni, J. C. A step-by-step workflow for low-level analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data with bioconductor. F1000Res 5, 2122 (2016).
Stuart, T. et al. Comprehensive integration of single-cell data. Cell 177, 1888-1902.e21 (2019).
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.031 pubmed: 31178118 pmcid: 6687398
Cao, J. et al. The single-cell transcriptional landscape of mammalian organogenesis. Nature 566, 496–502 (2019).
doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-0969-x pubmed: 30787437 pmcid: 6434952

Auteurs

Kathryn C Davidson (KC)

Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.

Minkyung Sung (M)

Mogrify Limited, Cambridge, England, UK.

Karl D Brown (KD)

Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), Melbourne, Australia.

Julian Contet (J)

Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.

Serena Belluschi (S)

Mogrify Limited, Cambridge, England, UK.

Regan Hamel (R)

Mogrify Limited, Cambridge, England, UK.

Aida Moreno-Moral (A)

Mogrify Limited, Cambridge, England, UK.

Rodrigo L Dos Santos (RL)

Mogrify Limited, Cambridge, England, UK.

Julian Gough (J)

Mogrify Limited, Cambridge, England, UK.
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, UK.

Jose M Polo (JM)

Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia. jose.polo@adelaide.edu.au.
Mogrify Limited, Cambridge, England, UK. jose.polo@adelaide.edu.au.
Development and Stem Cells Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Clayton, VIC, Australia. jose.polo@adelaide.edu.au.
Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia. jose.polo@adelaide.edu.au.
Adelaide Centre for Epigenetics, Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Medical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. jose.polo@adelaide.edu.au.
The South Australian Immunogenomics Cancer Institute, Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Medical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. jose.polo@adelaide.edu.au.

Mark Daniell (M)

Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), Melbourne, Australia. daniellm@unimelb.edu.au.

Geraint J Parfitt (GJ)

Mogrify Limited, Cambridge, England, UK. geraint.parfitt@abbvie.com.
Ophthalmology Discovery Research, AbbVie, Irvine, CA, USA. geraint.parfitt@abbvie.com.

Classifications MeSH