Generation of artificial thymus using trans-differentiation potentials between skin and thymic epithelial cells

鉴于已经证明胸腺上皮细胞在暴露于诱导皮肤微环境时具有向皮肤上皮干细胞转化的潜力，这两种上皮细胞似乎在干细胞维持和分化方面具有相似的调节机制。我们寻求有可能将皮肤上皮细胞转化为胸腺上皮细胞，最终从皮肤中产生用于再生医学应用的人工胸腺。在本研究中，我们证明了Meis1，一个在出生后胸腺上皮干细胞中表达的同源结构域家族转录因子，也在皮肤上皮干细胞中表达。利用Meis1作为皮肤和胸腺上皮干细胞共有的标记物，我们可能在不久的将来挑战建立上述方法来生成人工胸腺。

Given that it has been demonstrated that thymic epithelial cells have a potential to trans-differentiate into skin epithelial stem cells when exposed to inductive skin microenvironment, these two epithelial cells appears to share similar regulatory mechanisms for stem cell maintenance and differentiation. We sought that there is a possibility to trans-differentiate skin epithelial cells into thymic epithelial cells, eventually to generate the artificial thymus from the skin for regenerative medical application. In the present study, we demonstrated that Meis1, a homeodomain family transcription factor expressed in postnatal thymic epithelial stem cells, is also expressed in skin epithelial stem cells. By applying Meis1 as a marker shared by skin and thymic epithelial stem cells, we may challenge to establish the above-mentioned method to generate the artificial thymus in near future.