Dissecting human embryonic skeletal stem cell ontogeny by single-cell transcriptomic and functional analyses.

ABSTRACT: Human skeletal stem cells (SSCs) have been discovered in fetal and adult long bones. However, the spatiotemporal ontogeny of human embryonic SSCs during early skeletogenesis remains elusive. Here we map the transcriptional landscape of human limb buds and embryonic long bones at single-cell resolution to address this fundamental question. We found remarkable heterogeneity within human limb bud mesenchyme and epithelium, and aligned them along the proximal-distal and anterior-posterior axes using known marker genes. Osteo-chondrogenic progenitors first appeared in the core limb bud mesenchyme, which give rise to multiple populations of stem/progenitor cells in embryonic long bones undergoing endochondral ossification. Importantly, a perichondrial embryonic skeletal stem/progenitor cell (eSS

SUBMITTER: He J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8249634 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature