ArticleDevelopment (Cambridge, England)2015
Ectopic Atoh1 expression drives Merkel cell production in embryonic, postnatal and adult mouse epidermis.
Article in Development (Cambridge, England), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- RB1 inactivation in cutaneous carcinomas.Histopathology · 2026Review
- Piwil-2 represents a poor prognosticator in Merkel cell carcinomas that regulates oncoproteins, cell cycle arrest and SOX-2 expression.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Dendritic atoh1a+ cells serve as Merkel cell precursors during skin development and regeneration.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- The complex conundrum of Merkel cell carcinoma cellular ancestry.Cell death & disease · 2025Review
- Review
- The proneural transcription factor Atoh1 promotes odontogenic differentiation in human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs).BMC molecular and cell biology · 2025Article
- Development and regeneration of Merkel cells.Current topics in developmental biology · 2025Review
- Review
- ATOH1, TFAP2B, and CEACAM6 as Immunohistochemical Markers to Distinguish Merkel Cell Carcinoma and Small Cell Lung Cancer.Cancers · 2024Article
- Merkel cell carcinoma: updates in tumor biology, emerging therapies, and preclinical models.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Review
- Feline papillomavirus-associated Merkel cell carcinoma: a comparative review with human Merkel cell carcinoma.The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2023Review
- Merkel Cell Polyomavirus T Antigen-Mediated Reprogramming in Adult Merkel Cell Progenitors.The Journal of investigative dermatology · 2023Article
- Article
- Review
- Investigation of the RB1-SOX2 axis constitutes a tool for viral status determination and diagnosis in Merkel cell carcinoma.Virchows Archiv : an international journal of pathology · 2022Article
- Evidence of an epithelial origin of Merkel cell carcinoma.Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc · 2022Article
- Direct cellular reprogramming enables development of viral T antigen-driven Merkel cell carcinoma in mice.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2022Article
- DNA-methylation patterns imply a common cellular origin of virus- and UV-associated Merkel cell carcinoma.Oncogene · 2022Article
- Role of Virus-Induced Host Cell Epigenetic Changes in Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Merkel cells are mechanosensitive skin cells whose production requires the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor Atoh1. We induced ectopic Atoh1 expression in the skin of transgenic mice to determine whether Atoh1 was sufficient to create additional Merkel cells. In embryos, ectopic Atoh1 expression drove ectopic expression of the Merkel cell marker keratin 8 (K8) throughout the epidermis. Epidermal Atoh1 induction in adolescent mice similarly drove widespread K8 expression in glabrous skin of the paws, but in the whisker pads and body skin ectopic K8+ cells were confined to hair follicles and absent from interfollicular regions. Ectopic K8+ cells acquired several characteristics of mature Merkel cells in a time frame similar to that seen during postnatal development of normal Merkel cells. Although ectopic K8+ cell numbers decreased over time, small numbers of these cells remained in deep regions of body skin hair follicles at 3 months post-induction. In adult mice, greater numbers of ectopic K8+ cells were created by Atoh1 induction during anagen versus telogen and following disruption of Notch signaling by conditional deletion of Rbpj in the epidermis. Our data demonstrate that Atoh1 expression is sufficient to produce new Merkel cells in the epidermis, that epidermal cell competency to respond to Atoh1 varies by skin location, developmental age and hair cycle stage, and that the Notch pathway plays a key role in limiting epidermal cell competency to respond to Atoh1 expression.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.