Meis1 regulates epidermal stem cells and is required for skin tumorigenesis

我们揭示了Meis 1在表皮中的两个作用：作为正常组织中表皮稳态的关键调节因子和作为肿瘤组织中的原癌基因因子。在正常表皮中，我们发现Meis 1主要表达在毛囊的多能成体干细胞所在的隆起区域，并且当Meis 1在小鼠表皮组织中缺失时，这些干细胞的数量减少。与野生型小鼠相比，Meis 1表皮缺失的小鼠发生的DMBA/TPA诱导的良性和恶性肿瘤明显较少，表明Meis 1在肿瘤发生和恶性进展中起作用。这与Meis 1表达随着肿瘤从良性乳头状瘤进展到恶性癌而增加的观察结果一致。

We uncover two roles for Meis1 in the epidermis: as a critical regulator of epidermal homeostasis in normal tissues and as a proto-oncogenic factor in neoplastic tissues. In normal epidermis, we show that Meis1 is predominantly expressed in the bulge region of the hair follicles where multipotent adult stem cells reside, and that the number of these stem cells is reduced when Meis1 is deleted in the epidermal tissue of mice. Mice with epidermal deletion of Meis1 developed significantly fewer DMBA/TPA-induced benign and malignant tumors compared with wild-type mice, suggesting that Meis1 plays a role in both tumor development and malignant progression. This is consistent with the observation that Meis1 expression increases as tumors progress from benign papillomas to malignant carcinomas.