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SELECT MEMBER PUBLICATIONS AND HONORS*
Stanca Birlea, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology, Mayumi Fujita, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Dermatology, Maranke Koster, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology, David Norris, M.D., Professor, Department of Dermatology, and Dennis Roop, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Dermatology
In this original article, our team describes a new application that combines rapid immunostaining with laser capture microdissection followed by RNA-Sequencing (Goldstein et al., J Invest Dermatol, 2017). With this method, we isolate genetic material from skin cells (melanocyte and keratinocytes) located at specific sites (hair follicle bulge and epidermis), which enable us to provide an in-depth characterization of populations of melanocyte stem cells in the bulge (the repigmentation source), and to show how the gene signature of melanocyte precursors differ from that of the pigment cells in the regenerated vitiligo epidermis. We identified Wnt/ß-Catenin canonical pathway and GLI1 as key-players in activation of the bulge melanocyte stem cells during vitiligo repigmentation.
Kristen Boyle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, and Jed Friedman, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pediatrics
In this study, we cultured mesenchymal stem cells from fresh umbilical cord tissue from human infants born to mothers with obesity or normal weight mothers (Boyle et al., Molecular Metabolism, 2017). Comparisons of stem cells between these groups of infants revealed excess fat content in the cells from infants born to mothers with obesity. This was attributable to lower fat metabolism and greater fat storage in the stem cells. We also observed epigenetic differences in genes regulating fat metabolism, which may be one mechanism for altered fat metabolism in these cells. Moreover, the metabolic and epigenetic differences correlated with the fat mass of the infants, measured shortly after birth. These findings reveal that intrauterine exposure to obesity may have long-term consequences for infant stem cell metabolism. As we continue to follow the children from which the stem cells were derived, we may be able to use these stem cells to answer the question of whether infant stem cell metabolism predicts future weight gain or the development of obesity in these children.
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