Epithelial stem cells are formed by small-particles released from particle-producing cells

PLoS One. 2017 Mar 2;12(3):e0173072. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173072. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Recent spatiotemporal report demonstrated that epidermal stem cells have equal potential to divide or differentiate, with no asymmetric cell division observed. Therefore, how epithelial stem cells maintain lifelong stem-cell support still needs to be elucidated. In mouse blood and bone marrow, we found a group of large cells stained strongly for eosin and containing coiled-tubing-like structures. Many were tightly attached to each other to form large cellular clumps. After sectioning, these large cell-clumps were composed of not cells but numerous small particles, however with few small "naked" nuclei. The small particles were about 2 to 3 μm in diameter and stained dense red for eosin, so they may be rich in proteins. Besides the clumps composed of small particles, we identified clumps formed by fusion of the small particles and clumps of newly formed nucleated cells. These observations suggest that these small particles further fused and underwent cellularization. E-cadherin was expressed in particle-fusion areas, some "naked" nuclei and the newly formed nucleated cells, which suggests that these particles can form epithelial cells via fusion and nuclear remodeling. In addition, we observed similar-particle fusion before epithelial cellularization in mouse kidney ducts after kidney ischemia, which suggests that these particles can be released in the blood and carried to the target tissues for epithelial-cell regeneration. Oct4 and E-cadherin expressed in the cytoplasmic areas in cells that were rich in protein and mainly located in the center of the cellular clumps, suggesting that these newly formed cells have become tissue-specific epithelial stem cells. Our data provide evidence that these large particle-producing cells are the origin of epithelial stem cells. The epithelial stem cells are newly formed by particle fusion.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Epithelial Cells / cytology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Stem Cells / cytology*

Grants and funding

Beijing Khasar Medical Technology Co. Ltd is a commercial affiliation that was funded by the Department of Technology, Inner Mongolia government, China for research and development. Both the government and the commercial affiliation did not play a role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The government funding provided financial support in the form of research materials and equipment. The commercial affiliation provided support in the form of salaries for authors XZ, XH, MN, and HW.