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Epidermal progenitors give rise to Merkel cells during embryonic development and adult homeostasis

¹ Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Biologie Humaine et Moléculaire, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels B-1070, Belgium
² Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
³ Vlaams Institute for Biotechnology Department of Molecular and Developmental Genetics, ⁴ Centre for Human Genetics, Catholic University Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
⁵ Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Duve, Brussels B-1200, Belgium
⁶ Section of Molecular and Cellular Sport Medicine, German Sport University Cologne, D-50933 Cologne, Germany

Correspondence to Cédric Blanpain: Cedric.Blanpain{at}ulb.ac.be

Merkel cells (MCs) are located in the touch-sensitive area of the epidermis and mediate mechanotransduction in the skin. Whether MCs originate from embryonic epidermal or neural crest progenitors has been a matter of intense controversy since their discovery >130 yr ago. In addition, how MCs are maintained during adulthood is currently unknown. In this study, using lineage-tracing experiments, we show that MCs arise through the differentiation of epidermal progenitors during embryonic development. In adults, MCs undergo slow turnover and are replaced by cells originating from epidermal stem cells, not through the proliferation of differentiated MCs. Conditional deletion of the Atoh1/Math1 transcription factor in epidermal progenitors results in the absence of MCs in all body locations, including the whisker region. Our study demonstrates that MCs arise from the epidermis by an Atoh1-dependent mechanism and opens new avenues for study of MC functions in sensory perception, neuroendocrine signaling, and MC carcinoma.

Abbreviations used in this paper: cKO, conditional knockout; CREER, estrogen receptor–inducible CRE; CREPR, Cre progesterone receptor fusion protein; HF, hair follicle; MC, Merkel cell; NCC, neural crest cell; P-cadherin, placental cadherin; SC, stem cell; TAM, tamoxifen.

© 2009 Van Keymeulen et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.jcb.org/misc/terms.shtml). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Van Keymeulen, A., Mascre, G., Youseff, K. K., Harel, I., Michaux, C., De Geest, N., Szpalski, C., Achouri, Y., Bloch, W., Hassan, B. A., Blanpain, C. (2009). Epidermal progenitors give rise to Merkel cells during embryonic development and adult homeostasis. JEM 206: i26-i26 [Full Text]  
• Short, B. (2009). Merkel cells bear the touch of epidermis. JCB 187: 2-2 [Full Text]  

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