Biology subjects

Meyer zu Horste, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Meyer zu Horste, G..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

In vitro spatiotemporal reconstruction of human skeletal muscle organogenesis

Spatiotemporal recapitulation of long-range trajectories for lineages that influence body patterning along the medio-lateral and proximal-distal axes during embryogenesis in an in vitro system remains elusive. Here we introduce a three-dimensional organoid approach, termed Gastruloids-Lateraloid-Musculoids (GLMs), to model human neural crest, lateral plate mesoderm and skeletal muscle lineage development at the forelimb level following gastrulation and during limb patterning. GLMs harvest neuro-mesodermal progenitors with the potential to establish neural and paraxial mesodermal populations, while single cell analyses and spatial transcriptomics demonstrate promotion of mesodermal lineage segregation during gastrulation and spatial recapitulation of migration events along the medio-lateral axis for vagal neural crest, hypaxial myogenesis and lateral plate mesodermal lineages. Comparative analyses to developmental atlases and adult muscle stem cell data confirm a pool of hypaxial migrating myogenic progenitors that in a niche dependent manner change their embryonic anatomical developmental program to a fetal myogenic program, thus enabling them to resist specification in a cell autonomous manner and facilitate long term in vitro expansion. GLMs model human myogenesis at the forelimb level, establish fetal muscle stem cells equivalent to those that sustain the growth phase of the embryo and provide a 3D in vitro system for investigating neural crest, early fore-gut and lateral plate mesoderm development.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Induction of a colitogenic phenotype in Th1 cells depends on IL-23R signaling

The cytokine receptor IL-23R plays a fundamental role in inflammation and autoimmunity. However, several observations have been difficult to reconcile under the assumption that only Th17 cells critically depend on IL-23 to acquire a pathogenic phenotype. Here, we report that Th1 cells differentiated in vitro with IL-12 + IL-21 show similar levels of IL-23R expression as in pathogenic Th17 cells. We demonstrate that IL-23R is required for Th1 cells to acquire a highly colitogenic phenotype. scRNAseq analysis of intestinal T cells enabled us to identify novel regulators induced by IL-23R-signaling in Th1 cells which differed from those expressed in Th17 cells. The perturbation of one of these regulators (CD160) in Th1 cells inhibited induction of colitis. In this process, we were able to uncouple IL-23R as a purely Th17 cell-specific factor and implicate IL-23R signaling as a pathogenic driver of Th1 cell-mediated tissue inflammation and disease.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2018

Single-cell transcriptomics identifies drivers of local inflammation in multiple sclerosis

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protects the central nervous system (CNS) and analyzing CSF aids the diagnosis of CNS diseases, but our understanding of CSF leukocytes remains superficial. Here, we firstly provide a transcriptional map of single leukocytes in CSF compared to blood. Leukocyte composition and transcriptome were compartment-specific with CSF-enrichment of myeloid dendritic cells and a border-associated phenotype of monocytes.\n\nWe secondly tested how multiple sclerosis (MS) - an autoimmune disease of the CNS - affected both compartments. MS increased transcriptional diversity in blood, while it preferentially increased cell type diversity in CSF. In addition to the known expansion of B lineage cells, we identified an increase of cytotoxic-phenotype and follicular T helper (TFH) cells in the CSF. In mice, TFH cells accordingly promoted B cell infiltration into the CNS and severity of MS animal models. Immune mechanisms in MS are thus highly compartmentalized and indicate local T/B cell interaction.

immunology↗