Skin-Derived Precursor Cells as an In Vitro Modelling Tool for the Study of Type 1 Neurofibromatosis

[摘要] The most characteristic feature of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is the development of neurofibromas. It has been suggested that these tumors are caused by somatic inactivation of the wild-typeNF1allele, but the cell that originally suffers this mutation remains controversial. Several lines of evidence support the clonal origin of these tumors, and it has been recently suggested that skin-derived precursor cells (SKPs) could be the cell of origin of dermal neurofibromas. Nullizygous (NF1−/−) SKPs do give rise to neurofibromas when transplanted to heterozygous mice. Moreover, a nullizygous population of cells that is S100βnegative is present in human neurofibromas, andNF1+/−multipotent progenitor cells are seemingly recruited to the tumor. This evidence supports the neurofibroma stem cell hypothesis and a putative involvement of SKPs in the aetiopathogenesis of the disease, suggesting that SKPs could become a valuable tool for the in vitro study of NF1.

[学科分类] 生物技术