Molecular and spatial landmarks of early mouse skin development
Journal article, 2023
A wealth of specialized cell populations within the skin facilitates its hair-producing, protective, sensory, and thermoregulatory functions. How the vast cell-type diversity and tissue architecture develops is largely unexplored. Here, with single-cell transcriptomics, spatial cell-type assignment, and cell-lineage tracing, we deconstruct early embryonic mouse skin during the key transitions from seemingly uniform developmental precursor states to a multilayered, multilineage epithelium, and complex dermal identity. We identify the spatiotemporal emergence of hair-follicle-inducing, muscle-supportive, and fascia-forming fibroblasts. We also demonstrate the formation of the panniculus carnosus muscle (PCM), sprouting blood vessels without pericyte coverage, and the earliest residence of mast and dendritic immune cells in skin. Finally, we identify an unexpected epithelial heterogeneity within the early single-layered epidermis and a signaling-rich periderm layer. Overall, this cellular and molecular blueprint of early skin development—which can be explored at https://kasperlab.org/tools—establishes histological landmarks and highlights unprecedented dynamic interactions among skin cells.
single-cell RNA sequencing
fibroblast lineage divergence
mouse skin
molecular and anatomical landmarks
panniculus carnosus muscle
spatial analysis
periderm
embryonic development
hair follicle
lineage tracing
Author
Tina Jacob
Karolinska Institutet
Karl Annusver
Karolinska Institutet
Paulo Czarnewski
Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab)
Tim Dalessandri
Karolinska Institutet
Christina Kalk
Karolinska Institutet
Chiara Levra Levron
University of Turin
Nil Campamà Sanz
Karolinska Institutet
Maria Eleni Kastriti
Karolinska Institutet
Medical University of Vienna
Marja L. Mikkola
Institute of Biotechnology
Michael Rendl
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Beate M. Lichtenberger
Medical University of Vienna
Giacomo Donati
University of Turin
Åsa Björklund
Chalmers, Life Sciences, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Maria Kasper
Karolinska Institutet
Developmental Cell
1534-5807 (ISSN) 18781551 (eISSN)
Vol. 58 20 2140-2162.e5Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Cell and Molecular Biology
DOI
10.1016/j.devcel.2023.07.015
PubMed
37591247