1. Medicine

Single cell RNA sequencing and lineage tracing confirm mesenchyme to epithelial transformation (MET) contributes to repair of the endometrium at menstruation

  1. Phoebe M Kirkwood
  2. Douglas A Gibson
  3. Isaac Shaw
  4. Ross Dobie
  5. Olympia Kelepouri
  6. Neil C Henderson
  7. Philippa TK Saunders  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77663
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Cite this article
  1. Phoebe M Kirkwood
  2. Douglas A Gibson
  3. Isaac Shaw
  4. Ross Dobie
  5. Olympia Kelepouri
  6. Neil C Henderson
  7. Philippa TK Saunders
(2022)
Single cell RNA sequencing and lineage tracing confirm mesenchyme to epithelial transformation (MET) contributes to repair of the endometrium at menstruation
eLife 11:e77663.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77663
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Abstract

The human endometrium experiences repetitive cycles of tissue wounding characterised by piecemeal shedding of the surface epithelium and rapid restoration of tissue homeostasis. In this study we used a mouse model of endometrial repair and three transgenic lines of mice to investigate whether epithelial cells that become incorporated into the newly formed luminal epithelium have their origins in one or more of the mesenchymal cell types present in the stromal compartment of the endometrium. Using scRNAseq we identified a novel population of PDGFRb+ mesenchymal stromal cells that developed a unique transcriptomic signature in response to endometrial breakdown/repair. These cells expressed genes usually considered specific to epithelial cells and in silico trajectory analysis suggested they were stromal fibroblasts in transition to becoming epithelial cells. To confirm our hypothesis we used a lineage tracing strategy to compare the fate of stromal fibroblasts (PDGFRa+) and stromal perivascular cells (NG2/CSPG4+). We demonstrated that stromal fibroblasts can undergo a mesenchyme to epithelial transformation and become incorporated into the re-epithelialised luminal surface of the repaired tissue. This study is the first to discover a novel population of wound-responsive, plastic endometrial stromal fibroblasts that contribute to the rapid restoration of an intact luminal epithelium during endometrial repair. These findings form a platform for comparisons both to endometrial pathologies which involve a fibrotic response (Asherman’s syndrome, endometriosis) as well as other mucosal tissues which have a variable response to wounding.

Data availability

Single cell RNAseq datasets have been deposited in GEO under accession codes GSE198556

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

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Phoebe M Kirkwood

    Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Douglas A Gibson

    Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Isaac Shaw

    Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Ross Dobie

    Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Olympia Kelepouri

    Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Neil C Henderson

    Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  7. Philippa TK Saunders

    Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    For correspondence
    p.saunders@ed.ac.uk
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9051-9380

Funding

Medical Research Council (MR/N013166/1)

  • Phoebe M Kirkwood

Medical Research Council (MR/N024524/1)

  • Phoebe M Kirkwood
  • Douglas A Gibson
  • Isaac Shaw

Wellcome Trust (219542/Z/19/Z)

  • Neil C Henderson

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

Reviewing Editor

  1. Ricardo Azziz, University at Albany, SUNY, United States

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were performed under a license granted by the UK Home Office (PPL 70/8945) and were approved by the University of Edinburgh Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body.

Version history

  1. Preprint posted: December 21, 2021 (view preprint)
  2. Received: February 7, 2022
  3. Accepted: December 15, 2022
  4. Accepted Manuscript published: December 16, 2022 (version 1)
  5. Version of Record published: January 24, 2023 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2022, Kirkwood 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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  1. Phoebe M Kirkwood
  2. Douglas A Gibson
  3. Isaac Shaw
  4. Ross Dobie
  5. Olympia Kelepouri
  6. Neil C Henderson
  7. Philippa TK Saunders
(2022)
Single cell RNA sequencing and lineage tracing confirm mesenchyme to epithelial transformation (MET) contributes to repair of the endometrium at menstruation
eLife 11:e77663.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77663

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77663

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