1. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
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Stem cells repurpose proliferation to contain a breach in their niche barrier

  1. Kenneth Lay
  2. Shaopeng Yuan
  3. Shiri Gur-Cohen
  4. Yuxuan Miao
  5. Tianxiao Han
  6. Shruti Naik
  7. H Amalia Pasolli
  8. Samantha B Larsen
  9. Elaine Fuchs  Is a corresponding author
  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, United States
  2. Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States
Research Article
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Cite this article as: eLife 2018;7:e41661 doi: 10.7554/eLife.41661

Abstract

Adult stem cells are responsible for life-long tissue maintenance. They reside in and interact with specialized tissue microenvironments (niches). Using murine hair follicle as a model, we show that when junctional perturbations in the niche disrupt barrier function, adjacent stem cells dramatically change their transcriptome independent of bacterial invasion and become capable of directly signaling to and recruiting immune cells. Additionally, these stem cells elevate cell cycle transcripts which reduce their quiescence threshold, enabling them to selectively proliferate within this microenvironment of immune distress cues. However, rather than mobilizing to fuel new tissue regeneration, these ectopically proliferative stem cells remain within their niche to contain the breach. Together, our findings expose a potential communication relay system that operates from the niche to the stem cells to the immune system and back. The repurposing of proliferation by these stem cells patch the breached barrier, stoke the immune response and restore niche integrity.

Data availability

RNA-sequencing data have been deposited in GEO under accession number GSE106767

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Kenneth Lay

    Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  2. Shaopeng Yuan

    Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9554-1325

  3. Shiri Gur-Cohen

    Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  4. Yuxuan Miao

    Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  5. Tianxiao Han

    Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  6. Shruti Naik

    Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  7. H Amalia Pasolli

    Electron Microscopy Shared Resource, Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  8. Samantha B Larsen

    Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  9. Elaine Fuchs

    Robin Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Development and Cell Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States
    For correspondence
    elaine.fuchs@rockefeller.edu
    Competing interests
    Elaine Fuchs, Reviewing editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0978-5137

Funding

National Institutes of Health

  • Elaine Fuchs

L'Oreal USA

  • Shruti Naik

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All mice were maintained in a facility approved by The Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC), and procedures were performed with protocols approved by Rockefeller University's institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) members.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Valerie Horsley, Yale University, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: September 2, 2018
  2. Accepted: November 29, 2018
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: December 6, 2018 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: January 8, 2019 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2018, Lay 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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