mesenchymal cells

[Cell Reports] Researchers provided a comprehensive single-cell atlas of the developing mouse colon and evidence for the reactivation of embryonic genes in disease.

[Cell Stem Cell] In the liver, ductal cells rarely proliferate during homeostasis but do so transiently after tissue injury. Using organoid co-cultures that recapitulated the ductal-to-mesenchymal cell architecture of the portal tract, researchers demonstrated that a subpopulation of mouse periportal mesenchymal cells exerted dual control on proliferation of the epithelium.

[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] Using the sea urchin larva, the authors examined the otopetrin ortholog otop2l, which is exclusively expressed in the calcifying primary mesenchymal cells that generate the calcitic larval skeleton.

[Cell] Investigators summarize fibroblasts development, lineages, functions, and contributions to fibrosis in four fibroblast-rich organs: skin, lung, skeletal muscle, and heart.

[Cell Reports] Using a murine chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) model, investigators examined leukemia-induced alterations in mesenchymal cell populations and showed that 6C3+ stromal progenitors expanded in CML bone marrow and exhibited increased leukemia stem cells but reduced HSC supportive capacity.

[Science Translational Medicine] In mouse models of progressive osseous heteroplasia, a disease caused by null mutations in GNAS, researchers found that Gnas−/− mesenchymal cells secreted Sonic hedgehog (SHH), which induced osteoblast differentiation of the surrounding wild-type cells.