Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine, DUMC Box 3093, Durham, NC, 27710, USA.
Department of Pathology, Duke University School of Medicine, DUMC Box 3093, Durham, NC, 27710, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 9;14(1):27423. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-78580-3.
Meniscus injuries are common and while surgical strategies have improved, there is a need for alternative therapeutics to improve long-term outcomes and prevent post-traumatic osteoarthritis. Current research efforts in regenerative therapies and tissue engineering are hindered by a lack of understanding of meniscus cell biology and a poorly defined meniscus cell phenotype. This study utilized bulk RNA-sequencing to identify unique and overlapping transcriptomic profiles in cartilage, inner and outer zone meniscus tissue, and passaged inner and outer zone meniscus cells. The greatest transcriptomic differences were identified when comparing meniscus tissue to passaged monolayer cells (> 4,600 differentially expressed genes (DEGs)) and meniscus tissue to cartilage (> 3,100 DEGs). While zonal differences exist within the meniscus tissue (205 DEGs between inner and outer zone meniscus tissue), meniscus resident cells are more similar to each other than to either cartilage or passaged monolayer meniscus cells. Additionally, we identified and validated LUM, PRRX1, and SNTB1 as potential markers for meniscus tissue and ACTA2, TAGLN, SFRP2, and FSTL1 as novel markers for meniscus cell dedifferentiation. Our data contribute significantly to the current characterization of meniscus cells and provide an important foundation for future work in meniscus cell biology, regenerative medicine, and tissue engineering.
半月板损伤很常见，虽然手术策略有所改进，但仍需要替代疗法来改善长期结果并预防创伤后骨关节炎。目前，再生疗法和组织工程学的研究工作受到对半月板细胞生物学缺乏了解和半月板细胞表型定义不明确的阻碍。本研究利用批量 RNA 测序技术，鉴定了软骨、内、外侧半月板组织以及传代的内、外侧半月板细胞之间独特和重叠的转录组谱。将半月板组织与传代的单层细胞进行比较时（>4600 个差异表达基因（DEGs）），以及将半月板组织与软骨进行比较时（>3100 个 DEGs），鉴定出最大的转录组差异。虽然半月板组织内存在区域性差异（内、外侧半月板组织之间有 205 个 DEGs），但半月板固有细胞彼此之间的相似性大于与软骨或传代的单层半月板细胞之间的相似性。此外，我们还鉴定和验证了 LUM、PRRX1 和 SNTB1 作为半月板组织的潜在标志物，以及 ACTA2、TAGLN、SFRP2 和 FSTL1 作为半月板细胞去分化的新型标志物。我们的数据对半月板细胞的当前特征具有重要意义，并为未来的半月板细胞生物学、再生医学和组织工程学研究提供了重要基础。
