BME 7900 Seminar Series - Jingli Cao, PhD

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Location

Weill Hall 226

Description

We next welcome Dr. Jingli Cao from Weill Cornell Medical College. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.

Title:Tension Creates an Endoreplication Wavefront that Leads Regeneration of Epicardial Tissue

Abstract: Mechanisms that control cell cycle dynamics during tissue regeneration require elucidation. Here we find in zebrafish that regeneration of the epicardium, the mesothelial covering of the heart, is mediated by two phenotypically distinct epicardial cell subpopulations. These include a front of large, multinucleate leader cells, trailed by follower cells that divide to produce small, mononucleate daughters. By live imaging of cell cycle dynamics, we show that leader cells form by spatiotemporally regulated endoreplication, caused primarily by cytokinesis failure. Leader cells display greater velocities and mechanical tension within the epicardial tissue sheet, and experimentally induced tension anisotropy stimulates ectopic endoreplication. Unbalancing epicardial cell cycle dynamics with chemical modulators indicated autonomous regenerative capacity in both leader and follower cells, with leaders displaying an enhanced capacity for surface coverage. Our findings provide evidence that mechanical tension can regulate cell cycle dynamics in regenerating tissue, stratifying the source cell features to improve repair.