Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers

Human corneal endothelial cells (HCEnCs) form a monolayer of hexagonal cells whose main function is to maintain corneal clarity by regulating corneal hydration. HCEnCs are derived from neural crest and are arrested in the post-mitotic state. Thus cell loss due to aging or corneal endothelial disorde...

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Main Authors:	Schmedt, Thore, Chen, Yuming, Nguyen, Tracy T., Li, Shimin, Bonanno, Joseph A., Jurkunas, Ula V.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2012
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3528758/

id	pubmed-3528758
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-35287582013-01-02 Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers Schmedt, Thore Chen, Yuming Nguyen, Tracy T. Li, Shimin Bonanno, Joseph A. Jurkunas, Ula V. Research Article Human corneal endothelial cells (HCEnCs) form a monolayer of hexagonal cells whose main function is to maintain corneal clarity by regulating corneal hydration. HCEnCs are derived from neural crest and are arrested in the post-mitotic state. Thus cell loss due to aging or corneal endothelial disorders leads to corneal edema and blindness–the leading indication for corneal transplantation. Here we show the existence of morphologically distinct subpopulations of HCEnCs that are interspersed among primary cells and exhibit enhanced self-renewal competence and lack of phenotypic signs of cellular senescence. Colonies of these uniform and hexagonal HCEnCs (HCEnC-21) were selectively isolated and demonstrated high proliferative potential that was dependent on endogenous upregulation of telomerase and cyclin D/CDK4. Further transduction of HCEnC-21 with telomerase yielded a highly proliferative corneal endothelial cell line (HCEnT-21T) that was devoid of oncogenic transformation and retained critical corneal endothelial cell characteristics and functionality. This study will significantly impact the fields of corneal cell biology and regenerative medicine. Public Library of Science 2012-12-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3528758/ /pubmed/23284695 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051427 Text en © 2012 Schmedt et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Schmedt, Thore Chen, Yuming Nguyen, Tracy T. Li, Shimin Bonanno, Joseph A. Jurkunas, Ula V.
spellingShingle	Schmedt, Thore Chen, Yuming Nguyen, Tracy T. Li, Shimin Bonanno, Joseph A. Jurkunas, Ula V. Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers
author_facet	Schmedt, Thore Chen, Yuming Nguyen, Tracy T. Li, Shimin Bonanno, Joseph A. Jurkunas, Ula V.
author_sort	Schmedt, Thore
title	Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers
title_short	Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers
title_full	Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers
title_fullStr	Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers
title_full_unstemmed	Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers
title_sort	telomerase immortalization of human corneal endothelial cells yields functional hexagonal monolayers
description	Human corneal endothelial cells (HCEnCs) form a monolayer of hexagonal cells whose main function is to maintain corneal clarity by regulating corneal hydration. HCEnCs are derived from neural crest and are arrested in the post-mitotic state. Thus cell loss due to aging or corneal endothelial disorders leads to corneal edema and blindness–the leading indication for corneal transplantation. Here we show the existence of morphologically distinct subpopulations of HCEnCs that are interspersed among primary cells and exhibit enhanced self-renewal competence and lack of phenotypic signs of cellular senescence. Colonies of these uniform and hexagonal HCEnCs (HCEnC-21) were selectively isolated and demonstrated high proliferative potential that was dependent on endogenous upregulation of telomerase and cyclin D/CDK4. Further transduction of HCEnC-21 with telomerase yielded a highly proliferative corneal endothelial cell line (HCEnT-21T) that was devoid of oncogenic transformation and retained critical corneal endothelial cell characteristics and functionality. This study will significantly impact the fields of corneal cell biology and regenerative medicine.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2012
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3528758/
_version_	1611942381550043136

Telomerase Immortalization of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells Yields Functional Hexagonal Monolayers

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