SOX2 regulates acinar cell development in the salivary gland
- The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- University of California, San Francisco, United States
- Blood Systems Research Institute, United States
Abstract
Acinar cells play an essential role in the secretory function of exocrine organs. Despite this requirement, how acinar cells are generated during organogenesis is unclear. Using the acini-ductal network of the developing human and murine salivary gland, we demonstrate an unexpected role for SOX2 and parasympathetic nerves in generating the acinar lineage that has broad implications for epithelial morphogenesis. Despite SOX2 being expressed by progenitors that give rise to both acinar and duct cells, genetic ablation of SOX2 results in a failure to establish acini but not ducts. Furthermore, we show that SOX2 targets acinar specific genes and is essential for the survival of acinar but not ductal cells. Finally, we illustrate an unexpected and novel role for peripheral nerves in the creation of acini throughout development via regulation of SOX2. Thus, SOX2 is a master regulator of the acinar cell lineage essential to the establishment of a functional organ.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (R01DE024188)
- Elaine Emmerson
- Alison May
- Sara Nathan
- Noel Cruz Pacheco
- Sarah M Knox
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
- Elaine Emmerson
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols (#AN107810and AN111238) of the University of California San Francisco.
Copyright
© 2017, Emmerson et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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SOX2 regulates acinar cell development in the salivary gland
eLife 6:e26620.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.26620
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