2. Academic Validation
  3. Monitoring of cell-cell communication and contact history in mammals

Monitoring of cell-cell communication and contact history in mammals

  • Science. 2022 Dec 2;378(6623):eabo5503. doi: 10.1126/science.abo5503.
Shaohua Zhang # 1,  Huan Zhao # 1,  Zixin Liu 1,  Kuo Liu 2,  Huan Zhu 1,  Wenjuan Pu 1,  Lingjuan He 3,  Rong A Wang 4,  Bin Zhou 1 2 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Systems Health Science of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Science, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310024, China.
  • 3 School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310030, China.
  • 4 Laboratory for Accelerated Vascular Research, Department of Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
  • 5 School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 36454848 DOI: 10.1126/science.abo5503
Abstract

Monitoring of cell-cell communication in multicellular organisms is fundamental to understanding diverse biological processes such as embryogenesis and tumorigenesis. To track cell-cell contacts in vivo, we developed an intercellular genetic technology to monitor cell-cell contact and to trace cell contact histories by permanently marking contacts between cells. In mice, we engineered an artificial Notch ligand into one cell (the sender cell) and an artificial receptor into another cell (the receiver cell). Contact between the sender and receiver cells triggered a synthetic Notch signaling that activated downstream transcriptional programs in the receiver cell, thereby transiently or permanently labeling it. In vivo cell-cell contact was observed during development, tissue homeostasis, and tumor growth. This technology may be useful for studying dynamic in vivo cell-cell contacts and cell fate plasticity.

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