Biology subjects

Gitton, Y. I.

Publications and source records attributed to Gitton, Y. I..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Role of Neural Crest Cells in Establishing Corneal Transparency During Embryonic Development in Mice

This study deciphers the exquisitely timed cellular and molecular symphony orchestrating corneal development in mice, revealing how neural crest cells (NCCs) transition from multipotent progenitors to architects of a light-transmitting, mechanically robust stroma. Between embryonic day 10 until birth, NCCs undergo posteroanterior differentiation marked by sequential downregulation of stemness markers, paralleled by collagen I deposition initiating at E12. Stromal expansion and keratocyte-driven ECM remodelling yield precisely aligned collagen fibrils within lamellae a configuration enabling transparency through destructive interference of scattered light. Keratocytes adopt a dendritic morphology to minimize light scatter, while secreting crystallin-like proteins that match refractive indices between cells and matrix. Corneal endothelial maturation and dynamic ECM stratification culminate in a tissue optimized for both optical clarity and structural resilience. Our study elucidates the complex choreography of cellular and molecular events underpinning corneal development, offering novel insights into the acquisition of the corneas unique optical and biomechanical properties.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Multi-modal refinement of the human heart atlas during the first gestational trimester

1.Forty first-trimester human hearts were studied to lay groundwork for further studies of principles underlying congenital heart defects. We first sampled 49,227 cardiac nuclei from three fetuses at 8.6, 9.0, and 10.7 post-conceptional weeks (pcw) for single-nucleus RNA sequencing, enabling distinction of six classes comprising 21 cell types. Improved resolution led to identification of novel cardiomyocytes and minority autonomic and lymphatic endothelial transcriptomes, among others. After integration with 5-7 pcw heart single-cell RNAseq, we identified a human cardiomyofibroblast progenitor preceding diversification of cardiomyocyte and stromal lineages. Analysis of six Visium sections from two additional hearts was aided by deconvolution, and key spatial markers validated on sectioned and whole hearts in two- and three-dimensional space and over time. Altogether, anatomical-positional features including innervation, conduction and subdomains of the atrioventricular septum translate latent molecular identity into specialized cardiac functions. This atlas adds unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution to the characterization of human-specific aspects of early heart formation.

developmental biology↗