eLife (Oct 2024)

Cell-cell interaction determines cell fate of mesoderm-derived cell in tongue development through Hh signaling

  • Maiko Kawasaki,
  • Katsushige Kawasaki,
  • Finsa Tisna Sari,
  • Takehisa Kudo,
  • Jun Nihara,
  • Madoka Kitamura,
  • Takahiro Nagai,
  • Vanessa Utama,
  • Yoko Ishida,
  • Fumiya Meguro,
  • Alex Kesuma,
  • Akira Fujita,
  • Takayuki Nishimura,
  • Yuan Kogure,
  • Satoshi Maruyama,
  • Jun-ichi Tanuma,
  • Yoshito Kakihara,
  • Takeyasu Maeda,
  • Sarah Ghafoor,
  • Roman H Khonsari,
  • Pierre Corre,
  • Paul T Sharpe,
  • Martyn Cobourne,
  • Brunella Franco,
  • Atsushi Ohazama

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85042
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

Read online

Dysfunction of primary cilia leads to genetic disorder, ciliopathies, which shows various malformations in many vital organs such as brain. Multiple tongue deformities including cleft, hamartoma, and ankyloglossia are also seen in ciliopathies, which yield difficulties in fundamental functions such as mastication and vocalization. Here, we found these tongue anomalies in mice with mutation of ciliary protein. Abnormal cranial neural crest-derived cells (CNCC) failed to evoke Hh signal for differentiation of mesoderm-derived cells into myoblasts, which resulted in abnormal differentiation of mesoderm-derived cells into adipocytes. The ectopic adipose subsequently arrested tongue swelling formation. Ankyloglossia was caused by aberrant cell migration due to lack of non-canonical Wnt signaling. In addition to ciliopathies, these tongue anomalies are often observed as non-familial condition in human. We found that these tongue deformities could be reproduced in wild-type mice by simple mechanical manipulations to disturb cellular processes which were disrupted in mutant mice. Our results provide hints for possible future treatment in ciliopathies.

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