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SUMMARY:Novel aspects of tendon stem/ progenitor cells and their niche - H
 erbert Tempfer\, University of Salzburg
DTSTART:20130719T090000Z
DTEND:20130719T100000Z
UID:TALK46289@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Alexandre Kabla
DESCRIPTION:Tendons are fibrous bands of connective tissue\, transmitting 
 force from muscle to bone. Their healing capacity is very limited. Tendons
  do not regenerate after trauma or degeneration\; scar tissue usually fill
 s the site of damage. The so called “tenocytes” forming tendon tissue 
 are poorly characterized and considered to be of mesodermal origin\, like 
 bone fat and cartilage. We have previously shown that tendon perivascular 
 cells express both tendon- and stem cell associated markers\, suggesting t
 hat these cells represent a population of tendon progenitor cells.These ce
 lls express markers associated with stem cells less committed than mesench
 ymal stem cells\, such as Nestin\, Sox2\, C-myc and Klf4. In vitro they ca
 n give rise to electrophysiologically active neurons\, to osteoblasts and 
 adipocytes. In vivo\, tendon cells express neuronal markers like Doublecor
 tin\, GAP43 and a variety of neuropeptides such as substance P and BDNF. U
 sing a Sox10cre mouse model\, we observe that the majority of tendon cells
  originate from cells expressing Sox10\, suggesting a neural crest origin 
 of tendon tissue. Regarding the tendon stem/ progenitor cell niche\, we hy
 pothesize that there is a selective barrier between the blood flow and the
  tendon perivascular cells\, establishing a microenvironment allowing the 
 cells to remain in their undifferentiated status. By immunohistochemistry 
 qRT-PCR on human and mouse tissue we show the expression of the tight junc
 tion associated markers Claudin 1\, 3\, 5 and Occludin in tendon vascular 
 endothelial cells. These proteins are responsible for building up the bloo
 d brain barrier and the blood retina barrier. By injection of a 10kD dextr
 ane tracer to mouse tail veines\, we show that this barrier is functional.
  These findings may lead to a new understanding of tendon disorders like t
 endinopathy and to novel strategies in stem cell based tissue engineering 
 approaches.
LOCATION:PoM seminar room at the Cavendish
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