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Defining stem cell dynamics and migration during wound healing in mouse skin epidermis

ABSTRACT: Wound healing is essential to repair the skin after injury. In the epidermis, distinct stem cells (SCs) populations contribute to wound healing. However, how SCs balance proliferation, differentiation and migration to repair a wound remains poorly understood. Here we show the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate wound healing in mouse tail epidermis. Using a combination of proliferation kinetics experiments and molecular profiling, we identify the gene signatures associated with proliferation, differentiation and migration in different regions surrounding the wound. Functional experiments show that SC proliferation, migration and differentiation can be uncoupled during wound healing. Lineage tracing and quantitative clonal analysis reveal that, following wounding, progenitors divide more rapidly, but conserve their homeostatic mode of division, leading to their rapid depletion whereas SCs become active, giving rise to new progenitors that expand and repair the wound. These results have important implications for tissue regeneration, acute and chronic wound disorders.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE76795 | GEO | 2017/02/28

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA308599

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:While considerable progress has been made towards understanding the complex processes and pathways that regulate human wound healing, regenerative medicine has been unable to develop therapies that coax the natural wound environment to heal scar-free. The inability to induce perfect skin regeneration stems partly from our limited understanding of how scar-free healing occurs in a natural setting. Here we have investigated the wound repair process in adult axolotls and demonstrate that they are capable of perfectly repairing full thickness excisional wounds made on the flank. In the context of mammalian wound repair, our findings reveal a substantial reduction in hemostasis, reduced neutrophil infiltration and a relatively long delay in production of new extracellular matrix (ECM) during scar-free healing. Additionally, we test the hypothesis that metamorphosis leads to scarring and instead show that terrestrial axolotls also heal scar-free, albeit at a slower rate. Analysis of newly forming dermal ECM suggests that low levels of fibronectin and high levels of tenascin-C promote regeneration in lieu of scarring. Lastly, a genetic analysis during wound healing comparing epidermis between aquatic and terrestrial axolotls suggests that matrix metalloproteinases may regulate the fibrotic response. Our findings outline a blueprint to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms coordinating scar-free healing that will be useful towards elucidating new regenerative therapies targeting fibrosis and wound repair. We used microarray analysis to determine the gene expression changes that take place during scar free wound healing in aquatic and terrestrial axolotl salamanders. Epidermal tissue was harvested using a 4mm biopsy punch. Two wounds were made along the flank and posterior to the forelimbs. Harvested epidermis was pooled for each animal. Four biological replicates were collected from uninjured epidermis (D0) and at 1, 3, and 7 days post injury.

Project description:Salamander limb regeneration is dependent upon tissue interactions that are local to the amputation site. Communication among limb epidermis, peripheral nerves, and mesenchyme coordinate cell migration, cell proliferation, and tissue patterning to generate a blastema, a mass of progenitor cells that forms missing limb structures. An outstanding question is how molecular cross-talk between these tissues gives rise to the regeneration blastema. To identify genes associated with epidermis-nerve-mesenchymal interactions during limb regeneration, we examined histological and transcriptional changes during the first week following injury in the wound epidermis and subjacent cells between three injury types; 1) a flank wound on the side of the animal that will not regenerate a limb, 2) a denervated limb that will not regenerate a limb, and 3) an innervated limb that will regenerate a limb. Early, histological and transcriptional changes were highly similar between the three injury types, presumably because a common wound-healing program is employed across anatomical locations. However, we identified transcripts that were enriched in the limb compared to the flank and are associated with vertebrate limb development. Many of these genes were activated before blastema outgrowth and in situ hybridization showed that some of these genes were expressed in specific tissue types including the epidermis, peripheral nerve, and mesenchyme. We also identified a relatively small group of transcripts that were more highly expressed in innervated limbs versus denervated limbs. These transcripts encode for proteins that are associated with myelination of peripheral nerves, epidermal maintenance, and cell proliferation, suggesting that denervation affects myelinating Schwann cells, epidermal cell function, and proliferation of mesenchymal cells. Overall, our study identifies limb-specific and nerve-dependent genes that are upstream of regenerative growth, and thus promising candidates for the regulation of blastema formation. We used microarray analysis to determine the gene expression changes that take place during limb regeneration, flank wound healing, and an denervated amputated limb. Epidermal tissue and cells adhered to the epidermis were collected as samples. Two harvested samples was pooled for each animal. Four biological replicates were collected from uninjured epidermis (D0) and at 1, 3, and 7 days post injury.

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Defining stem cell dynamics and migration during wound healing in mouse skin epidermis

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