Reprogramming lineage-traced Müller glia for robust proliferation and neurogenesis in adult mammalian retinas
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE310001 | GEO | 2026/07/21
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:In the zebrafish retina, Müller glia (MG) respond to retinal injury by dividing and producing a multipotent progenitor for retinal repair. This cell division is regulated by microglia; however, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here we report that MG-derived Il34 attracts microglia to sites of retinal injury where they stimulate MG proliferation via the release of cytokines, like M17, Spp1, Tnfa and Tnfb. Remarkably, RNaseq analysis of MG’s regeneration-associated transcriptome with and without microglia depletion suggests microglia stimulate MG proliferation by preferentially enhancing the expression of regeneration-associated genes involved in cell division-related processes. In contrast, genetic ablation of essentially all microglia from early development appears to reprogram MG so they exhibit enhanced injury-dependent proliferation, but their survival is compromised. Our studies illustrate the profound effects MG-microglia cross talk can have on MG transcriptional programs related to cell division processes.
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Project description:Following acute retinal damage, zebrafish possess the ability to regenerate all neuronal subtypes. This regeneration requires Müller glia (MG) to reprogram and divide asymmetrically to produce a multipotent Müller glia-derived neuronal progenitor cell (MGPC). This raises three key questions. First, does loss of different retinal cell subtypes induce unique MG regeneration responses? Second, do MG reprogram to a developmental retinal progenitor cell state? And finally, to what extent does regeneration recapitulate retinal development? We examined these questions by performing single-nuclear and single-cell RNA-Seq and ATAC-Seq in both developing and regenerating retinas. While MG reprogram to a state similar to late-stage retinal progenitors in developing retinas, there are transcriptional differences between reprogrammed MG/MGPCs and late progenitors, as well as reprogrammed MG in outer and inner retinal damage models. Validation of candidate genes confirmed that loss of different subtypes induces differences in transcription factor gene expression and regeneration outcomes. This work identifies major differences between gene regulatory networks activated following the selective loss of different subtypes of retina neurons, as well as between retinal regeneration and development.
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Project description:In the injured zebrafish retina, Müller glia (MG) reprogram their transcriptome and undergo an asymmetric division that produces a multipotent progenitor for retinal repair. Although MG cell division is regulated by microglia, its underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here we report that microglia contribute to MG reprogramming by preferentially stimulating the expression of genes associated with cell division-related processes like chromosome segregation, DNA replication, and mitotic cell cycle. Furthermore, we report that depleting microglia systemically from early development leads to a compensatory immune cell response in the retina. Our studies illustrate the profound effects microglia can have on neighboring cells and support a two-step model of MG reprogramming, where dying neurons initiate and microglia complete this reprogramming process.
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Project description:Upon retinal injury, zebrafish Müller glia (MG) transition from a quiescent supportive cell to a progenitor cell (MGPC). This event is accompanied by the induction of key transcription and pluripotency factors. Because somatic cell reprogramming during iPSC generation is accompanied by changes in DNA methylation, especially in pluripotency factor gene promoters, we were interested in determining if DNA methylation changes also underlie MG reprogramming following retinal injury. Consistent with this idea, we found that genes encoding components of the DNA methylation/demethylation machinery were induced in MGPCs and that manipulating MGPC DNA methylation with 5-aza-2’-deoxycytidine altered their properties. A comprehensive analysis of the DNA methylation landscape as MG reprogram to MGPCs revealed that demethylation predominates at early times, while levels of de novo methylation increase at later times. We found that these changes in DNA methylation were largely independent of Apobec2 protein expression. A correlation between promoter DNA demethylation and injury-dependent gene induction was noted. In contrast to iPSC formation, we found that pluripotency factor gene promoters were already hypomethylated in quiescent MG and remained unchanged in MGPCs. Interestingly, these pluripotency factor promoters were also found to be hypomethylated in mouse MG. Our data identify a dynamic DNA methylation landscape as zebrafish MG transition to a MGPC and suggest that DNA methylation changes will complement other regulatory mechanisms to ensure gene expression programs controlling MG reprogramming are appropriately activated during retina regeneration. Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (MspI,~40-220bp size fraction) of zebrafish MG before and after injury. This dataset includes 4 replicated samples: The MG samples report the genomic methylation of a quiescent state. The 4dpi MGPC sampes report the methylation of a dedifferentiated, proliferating progenitor. The 2dpi morpholino samples report the genomic methylation of a dedifferentiated MGPC following a conrtol or Apobec2a,2b knockdown.
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Project description:Upon retinal injury, zebrafish Müller glia (MG) transition from a quiescent supportive cell to a progenitor cell (MGPC). This event is accompanied by the induction of key transcription and pluripotency factors. Because somatic cell reprogramming during iPSC generation is accompanied by changes in DNA methylation, especially in pluripotency factor gene promoters, we were interested in determining if DNA methylation changes also underlie MG reprogramming following retinal injury. Consistent with this idea, we found that genes encoding components of the DNA methylation/demethylation machinery were induced in MGPCs and that manipulating MGPC DNA methylation with 5-aza-2’-deoxycytidine altered their properties. A comprehensive analysis of the DNA methylation landscape as MG reprogram to MGPCs revealed that demethylation predominates at early times, while levels of de novo methylation increase at later times. We found that these changes in DNA methylation were largely independent of Apobec2 protein expression. A correlation between promoter DNA demethylation and injury-dependent gene induction was noted. In contrast to iPSC formation, we found that pluripotency factor gene promoters were already hypomethylated in quiescent MG and remained unchanged in MGPCs. Interestingly, these pluripotency factor promoters were also found to be hypomethylated in mouse MG. Our data identify a dynamic DNA methylation landscape as zebrafish MG transition to a MGPC and suggest that DNA methylation changes will complement other regulatory mechanisms to ensure gene expression programs controlling MG reprogramming are appropriately activated during retina regeneration.
2013-11-05 | GSE50717 | GEO
Project description:We elucidate the role of prospero-related homeobox 1 (Prox1) in rendering the mammalian retina incompetent for MG(Muller glia cell)-derived regeneration. Prox1 accumulates in MG in the degenerating human and mouse retinas but not in those in the regenerating zebrafish retina. We investigated whether the transition of MG to proliferative MGPCs occurred in MNU-injured Prox1fg/fg;Chx10-CreERT2 mouse retinas through single-cell RNA sequencing analysis.
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Project description:Recent studies have demonstrated the complex coordination of pro-inflammatory signaling and reactive microglia/macrophage on the formation Müller glial-derived progenitor cells (MGPCs) intheretinas offish, birds and mice.We generated scRNA-seq libraries to identify transcriptional changes in Müller glia (MG) that result from the depletion of microglia from the chick retina. We found significant changes in different networks of genes in MG in normal and damaged retinas when the microglia are ablated. We identified a failure of MG to upregulate Wnt-ligands, Heparin binding epidermal growth factor (HBEGF), Fibroblast growth factor (FGF), retinoic acid receptors and genes related to Notch-signaling. Inhibition of GSK3β, to simulate Wnt-signaling, failed to rescue the deficit in formation of proliferating MGPCs in damaged retinas missing microglia. By comparison, application of HBEGF or FGF2 completely rescued the formation of proliferating MGPCs in microglia-depleted retinas. Similarly, injection of a small molecule inhibitor to Smad3 or agonist to retinoic acid receptors partially rescued the formation of proliferating MGPCs in microglia-depleted damaged retinas. According to scRNA-seq libraries, patterns of expression of ligands, receptors, signal transducers and/or processing enzymes to cell-signaling via HBEGF, FGF, retinoic acid and TGFβ are rapidly and transiently upregulated by MG after neuronal damage, consistent with important roles for these cell-signaling pathways in regulating the formation of MGPCs. We conclude that quiescent and activated microglia have a significant impact upon the transcriptomic profile of MG. We conclude that signals produced by reactive microglia in damaged retinas stimulate MG to upregulate cell signaling through HBEGF, FGF and retinoic acid, and downregulate signaling through TGFβ/Smad3 to promote the reprogramming on MG into proliferating MGPCs.
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Project description:In the developing retina, as in many other regions of the central nervous system, multipotent neural progenitor cells undergo unidirectional changes to produce differentiated cells in a precise spatiotemporal order. Here we profile the epigenetic and transcriptional changes that occur during retinal development in mice and humans. Although some progenitor genes and cell cycle genes were epigenetically silenced during retinogenesis, the most dramatic change was derepression of cell type–specific differentiation programs. We identified developmental stage–specific superenhancers and showed that the majority of epigenetic changes during murine retinal development are conserved in the human retina. To determine how the epigenome changes during tumorigenesis and reprogramming, we performed the same integrated epigenetic analysis of murine and human retinoblastomas and iPSCs derived from murine rod photoreceptors. The retinoblastoma epigenome mapped to the developmental stage when retinal progenitors switch from a neurogenic to a terminal pattern of cell division and murine retinoblastomas initiate earlier in development than human tumors. The epigenome of retinoblastomas was far more similar to that of normal retina than was the epigenome of retinal-derived iPSCs but we were able to identify retinal specific epigenetic memory. Together, these data provide an in depth view of the dynamic epigenome during neurogenesis and how that relates to developmental tumors and epigenetic memory in iPSCs produced from neurons.
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Project description:In the developing retina, as in many other regions of the central nervous system, multipotent neural progenitor cells undergo unidirectional changes to produce differentiated cells in a precise spatiotemporal order. Here we profile the epigenetic and transcriptional changes that occur during retinal development in mice and humans. Although some progenitor genes and cell cycle genes were epigenetically silenced during retinogenesis, the most dramatic change was derepression of cell type–specific differentiation programs. We identified developmental stage–specific superenhancers and showed that the majority of epigenetic changes during murine retinal development are conserved in the human retina. To determine how the epigenome changes during tumorigenesis and reprogramming, we performed the same integrated epigenetic analysis of murine and human retinoblastomas and iPSCs derived from murine rod photoreceptors. The retinoblastoma epigenome mapped to the developmental stage when retinal progenitors switch from a neurogenic to a terminal pattern of cell division and murine retinoblastomas initiate earlier in development than human tumors. The epigenome of retinoblastomas was far more similar to that of normal retina than was the epigenome of retinal-derived iPSCs but we were able to identify retinal specific epigenetic memory. Together, these data provide an in depth view of the dynamic epigenome during neurogenesis and how that relates to developmental tumors and epigenetic memory in iPSCs produced from neurons.
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Project description:In the developing retina, as in many other regions of the central nervous system, multipotent neural progenitor cells undergo unidirectional changes to produce differentiated cells in a precise spatiotemporal order. Here we profile the epigenetic and transcriptional changes that occur during retinal development in mice and humans. Although some progenitor genes and cell cycle genes were epigenetically silenced during retinogenesis, the most dramatic change was derepression of cell type–specific differentiation programs. We identified developmental stage–specific superenhancers and showed that the majority of epigenetic changes during murine retinal development are conserved in the human retina. To determine how the epigenome changes during tumorigenesis and reprogramming, we performed the same integrated epigenetic analysis of murine and human retinoblastomas and iPSCs derived from murine rod photoreceptors. The retinoblastoma epigenome mapped to the developmental stage when retinal progenitors switch from a neurogenic to a terminal pattern of cell division and murine retinoblastomas initiate earlier in development than human tumors. The epigenome of retinoblastomas was far more similar to that of normal retina than was the epigenome of retinal-derived iPSCs but we were able to identify retinal specific epigenetic memory. Together, these data provide an in depth view of the dynamic epigenome during neurogenesis and how that relates to developmental tumors and epigenetic memory in iPSCs produced from neurons.
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