An Insight into the Difficulties in the Discovery of Specific Biomarkers of Limbal Stem Cells
Keeping the integrity and transparency of the cornea is the most important issue to ensure normal vision. There are more than 10 million patients going blind due to the cornea diseases worldwide. One of the effective ways to cure corneal diseases is corneal transplantation. Currently, donations are...
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI AG
2018-07-01
|
Series: | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/19/7/1982 |
id |
doaj-d3b96dcd890b472d87c05dafe1b0472f |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-d3b96dcd890b472d87c05dafe1b0472f2020-11-24T21:54:01ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences1422-00672018-07-01197198210.3390/ijms19071982ijms19071982An Insight into the Difficulties in the Discovery of Specific Biomarkers of Limbal Stem CellsZhi Hou Guo0Wei Zhang1Yang Yan Sheng Jia2Qing Xiu Liu3Zhao Fa Li4Jun Sheng Lin5School of Medicine, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, ChinaSchool of Medicine, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, ChinaSchool of Medicine, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, ChinaSchool of Medicine, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, ChinaSchool of Medicine, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, ChinaSchool of Medicine, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, ChinaKeeping the integrity and transparency of the cornea is the most important issue to ensure normal vision. There are more than 10 million patients going blind due to the cornea diseases worldwide. One of the effective ways to cure corneal diseases is corneal transplantation. Currently, donations are the main source of corneas for transplantation, but immune rejection and a shortage of donor corneas are still serious problems. Graft rejection could cause transplanted cornea opacity to fail. Therefore, bioengineer-based corneas become a new source for corneal transplantation. Limbal stem cells (LSCs) are located at the basal layer in the epithelial palisades of Vogt, which serve a homeostatic function for the cornea epithelium and repair the damaged cornea. LSC-based transplantation is one of the hot topics currently. Clinical data showed that the ratio of LSCs to total candidate cells for a transplantation has a significant impact on the effectiveness of the transplantation. It indicates that it is very important to accurately identify the LSCs. To date, several putative biomarkers of LSCs have been widely reported, whereas their specificity is controversial. As reported, the identification of LSCs is based on the characteristics of stem cells, such as a nuclear-to-cytoplasm ratio (N/C) ≥ 0.7, label-retaining, and side population (SP) phenotype. Here, we review recently published data to provide an insight into the circumstances in the study of LSC biomarkers. The particularities of limbus anatomy and histochemistry, the limits of the current technology level for LSC isolation, the heterogeneity of LSCs and the influence of enzyme digestion are discussed. Practical approaches are proposed in order to overcome the difficulties in basic and applied research for LSC-specific biomarkers.http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/19/7/1982limbal stem cell (LSC)LSC nicheLSC biomarkerheterogeneity |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Zhi Hou Guo Wei Zhang Yang Yan Sheng Jia Qing Xiu Liu Zhao Fa Li Jun Sheng Lin |
spellingShingle |
Zhi Hou Guo Wei Zhang Yang Yan Sheng Jia Qing Xiu Liu Zhao Fa Li Jun Sheng Lin An Insight into the Difficulties in the Discovery of Specific Biomarkers of Limbal Stem Cells International Journal of Molecular Sciences limbal stem cell (LSC) LSC niche LSC biomarker heterogeneity |
author_facet |
Zhi Hou Guo Wei Zhang Yang Yan Sheng Jia Qing Xiu Liu Zhao Fa Li Jun Sheng Lin |
author_sort |
Zhi Hou Guo |
title |
An Insight into the Difficulties in the Discovery of Specific Biomarkers of Limbal Stem Cells |
title_short |
An Insight into the Difficulties in the Discovery of Specific Biomarkers of Limbal Stem Cells |
title_full |
An Insight into the Difficulties in the Discovery of Specific Biomarkers of Limbal Stem Cells |
title_fullStr |
An Insight into the Difficulties in the Discovery of Specific Biomarkers of Limbal Stem Cells |
title_full_unstemmed |
An Insight into the Difficulties in the Discovery of Specific Biomarkers of Limbal Stem Cells |
title_sort |
insight into the difficulties in the discovery of specific biomarkers of limbal stem cells |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
issn |
1422-0067 |
publishDate |
2018-07-01 |
description |
Keeping the integrity and transparency of the cornea is the most important issue to ensure normal vision. There are more than 10 million patients going blind due to the cornea diseases worldwide. One of the effective ways to cure corneal diseases is corneal transplantation. Currently, donations are the main source of corneas for transplantation, but immune rejection and a shortage of donor corneas are still serious problems. Graft rejection could cause transplanted cornea opacity to fail. Therefore, bioengineer-based corneas become a new source for corneal transplantation. Limbal stem cells (LSCs) are located at the basal layer in the epithelial palisades of Vogt, which serve a homeostatic function for the cornea epithelium and repair the damaged cornea. LSC-based transplantation is one of the hot topics currently. Clinical data showed that the ratio of LSCs to total candidate cells for a transplantation has a significant impact on the effectiveness of the transplantation. It indicates that it is very important to accurately identify the LSCs. To date, several putative biomarkers of LSCs have been widely reported, whereas their specificity is controversial. As reported, the identification of LSCs is based on the characteristics of stem cells, such as a nuclear-to-cytoplasm ratio (N/C) ≥ 0.7, label-retaining, and side population (SP) phenotype. Here, we review recently published data to provide an insight into the circumstances in the study of LSC biomarkers. The particularities of limbus anatomy and histochemistry, the limits of the current technology level for LSC isolation, the heterogeneity of LSCs and the influence of enzyme digestion are discussed. Practical approaches are proposed in order to overcome the difficulties in basic and applied research for LSC-specific biomarkers. |
topic |
limbal stem cell (LSC) LSC niche LSC biomarker heterogeneity |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/19/7/1982 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT zhihouguo aninsightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT weizhang aninsightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT yangyanshengjia aninsightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT qingxiuliu aninsightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT zhaofali aninsightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT junshenglin aninsightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT zhihouguo insightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT weizhang insightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT yangyanshengjia insightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT qingxiuliu insightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT zhaofali insightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells AT junshenglin insightintothedifficultiesinthediscoveryofspecificbiomarkersoflimbalstemcells |
_version_ |
1725869427242565632 |