RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pericytes promote skin regeneration by inducing epidermal cell polarity and planar cell divisions
JF Life Science Alliance
JO Life Sci. Alliance
FD Life Science Alliance LLC
SP e201700009
DO 10.26508/lsa.201700009
VO 1
IS 4
A1 Lizhe Zhuang
A1 Kynan T Lawlor
A1 Holger Schlueter
A1 Zalitha Pieterse
A1 Yu Yu
A1 Pritinder Kaur
YR 2018
UL https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/1/4/e201700009.abstract
AB The cellular and molecular microenvironment of epithelial stem/progenitor cells is critical for their long-term self-renewal. We demonstrate that mesenchymal stem cell–like dermal microvascular pericytes are a critical element of the skin's microenvironment influencing human skin regeneration using organotypic models. Specifically, pericytes were capable of promoting homeostatic skin tissue renewal by conferring more planar cell divisions generating two basal cells within the proliferative compartment of the human epidermis, while ensuring complete maturation of the tissue both spatially and temporally. Moreover, we provide evidence supporting the notion that BMP-2, a secreted protein preferentially expressed by pericytes in human skin, confers cell polarity and planar divisions on epidermal cells in organotypic cultures. Our data suggest that human skin regeneration is regulated by highly conserved mechanisms at play in other rapidly renewing tissues such as the bone marrow and in lower organisms such as Drosophila. Our work also provides the means to significantly improve ex vivo skin tissue regeneration for autologous transplantation.