Tissue Biogeography: Cellular Composition and Communication in Pathological Conditions

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Maria Cimini

Temple University

<p>I am a researcher with a strong interest in the interaction between progenitor cells and immune cells in cardiovascular physiopathology. During my BS and MS degrees, I studied with old fashion approaches the histo-pathology of the heart, the lymphatic system and progenitor cells phenotype using transmission electron microscopy. I had the fortune to be guided and taught about histology and microscopy in all the details. After my master's degree, I wanted to peruse my scientific carrier with a very competitive international PhD program and I choose to improve my skills working as a pre-doctoral fellow at Harvard University in order to be competitive during my graduate studies. It was very important to me to became independent, to be able to troubleshoot and most important skillful. In the course of my pre-doctoral career, I have acquired extensive expertise on the mechanism of neo-lymphangiogenesis during the scar formation in the infarcted heart and I investigated the novel role of the lymphatic vessels in the cardiac progenitor cells trafficking after myocardial infarction. During this study, I noticed, by serendipity, that the glycoprotein podoplanin, a specific lymphatic endothelial cell marker was expressed with an unexpected heterogeneity, thus, during my PhD I investigated and characterized the cell populations that acquire podoplanin after myocardial infarction in a time-dependent manner. As early as I begin my PhD program I established my line of research and I published the characterization of podoplanin positive cells. Continuing on the same topic I focused my attention on cellto-cell communication and during my first year of post-doc I published my findings regarding the interactome between podoplanin positive cells and podoplanin binding cells. At the present I am investigating the paracrine communication of podplanin positive cells; my proposed study has multiple innovative components, I am looking for the first time at different prospective the role of exosomes derived from progenitor cells that have been always described to improve organs function. These studies open a new line of investigation extending beyond known pro-reparative properties and are thus novel with significant implication for therapies.</p>

Collection Overview

Tissue biogeography, defined as the study of spatial distribution and interaction of cell types within a given tissue, is essential for the investigation of pathological conditions. Cancerous, scarred, injured, or inflamed tissues are described by cellular composition, cell-to-cell-interaction, paracrine signals, and extracellular matrix structure. In this proposed collection, we aim to assemble various techniques aimed to characterize the evolution of a tissue in different phases, specifically in the study of the same cohort of cells but from different area of research. It is known that otherwise disparate diseases are connected by the presence or appearance of the same type of cells, and the expression of the same markers or paracrine signals. The dissemination of protocols for single cell isolation, single cell sequencing, lineage tracing, and in vitro phenotype derivation will allow researchers in different fields to investigate the same population of cells with respect to their particular areas of study. With this collection, we aim to gather protocols on the in vitro derivation of activated cells isolated from tissue, methods for studying how specific cell types switch phenotype or acquire specific markers, and techniques for the in vitro reproduction of disease-specific cells isolated from animals. Understanding the composition and cell communication occurring in diseased tissue is essential for the study of tissue regeneration, to reduce inflammation, and to avoid the formation of detrimental and nonfunctional tissue structure.