Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
Abstract
We investigated an alternative pathway for emergence of the mesenchymal cells involved in epithelial sheet wound healing and a source of myofibroblasts that cause fibrosis. Using a mock cataract surgery model, we discovered a unique subpopulation of polyploid mesenchymal progenitors nestled in small niches among lens epithelial cells that expressed the surface antigen G8 and mRNA for the myogenic transcription factor MyoD. These cells rapidly responded to wounding of the lens epithelium with population expansion, acquisition of a mesenchymal phenotype, and migration to the wound edges where they regulate the wound response of the epithelium. These mesenchymal cells also were a principal source of myofibroblasts that emerged following lens injury and were responsible for fibrotic disease of the lens that occurs following cataract surgery. These studies provide insight into the mechanisms of wound-healing and fibrosis.
Publication Title
PNAS
Volume
107
Issue
31
Recommended Citation
Walker, J. L.; Zhai, N.; Zhang, L.; Bleaken, B.; Wolff, I.; Gerhart, Jacquelyn; George-Weinstein, Mindy; and Menko, A. S., "Unique precursors for the mesenchymal cells involved in injury response and fibrosis" (2010). PCOM Scholarly Papers. 1672.
https://digitalcommons.pcom.edu/scholarly_papers/1672
Comments
This article was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 107, Issue 31, Pages 13730 - 13735.
The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910382107
Copyright © 2010 Walker et al.