Multipotent peripheral glial cells generate neuroendocrine cells of the adrenal medulla

作者：Alessandro Furlan, Vyacheslav Dyachuk, Maria Eleni Kastriti, Laura Calvo-Enrique, Hind Abdo, Saïda Hadjab, Tatiana Chontorotzea, Natalia Akkuratova, Dmitry Usoskin, Dmitrii Kamenev, Julian Petersen, Kazunori Sunadome, Fatima Memic, Ulrika Marklund, Kaj Fried, Piotr Topilko, François Lallemend, Peter V. Kharchenko, Patrik Ernfors, Igor Adameyko · 发表于：Science · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1126/science.aal3753 · 被引用次数：371 · 研究领域：Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics、Congenital heart defects research、Adipose Tissue and Metabolism

Adrenaline is a fundamental circulating hormone for bodily responses to internal and external stressors. Chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla (AM) represent the main neuroendocrine adrenergic component and are believed to differentiate from neural crest cells. We demonstrate that large numbers of chromaffin cells arise from peripheral glial stem cells, termed Schwann cell precursors (SCPs). SCPs migrate along the visceral motor nerve to the vicinity of the forming adrenal gland, where they detach from the nerve and form postsynaptic neuroendocrine chromaffin cells. An intricate molecular logic drives two sequential phases of gene expression, one unique for a distinct transient cellular state and another for cell type specification. Subsequently, these programs down-regulate SCP-gene and up-regulate chromaffin cell-gene networks. The AM forms through limited cell expansion and requires the recruitment of numerous SCPs. Thus, peripheral nerves serve as a stem cell niche for neuroendocrine system development.