SPT6 loss permits the transdifferentiation of keratinocytes into an intestinal fate that resembles Barrett's metaplasia.
Daniella T Vo, MacKenzie R Fuller, Courtney Tindle, Mahitha Shree Anandachar, Soumita Das, Debashis Sahoo, Pradipta Ghosh
Author Information
Daniella T Vo: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0703, Leichtag Building 132, La Jolla, CA 92093-0703, USA.
MacKenzie R Fuller: Departments of Medicine and Cell and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive (MC 0651), George E. Palade Bldg, Rm 232, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Courtney Tindle: Departments of Medicine and Cell and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive (MC 0651), George E. Palade Bldg, Rm 232, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Mahitha Shree Anandachar: Department of Pathology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, George E. Palade Bldg, Rm 256, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Soumita Das: HUMANOID Center of Research Excellence (CoRE), University of California San Diego, La Jolla, USA.
Debashis Sahoo: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0703, Leichtag Building 132, La Jolla, CA 92093-0703, USA.
Pradipta Ghosh: Departments of Medicine and Cell and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive (MC 0651), George E. Palade Bldg, Rm 232, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Transient depletion of the transcription elongation factor SPT6 in the keratinocyte has been recently shown to inhibit epidermal differentiation and stratification; instead, they transdifferentiate into a gut-like lineage. We show here that this phenomenon of transdifferentiation recapitulates Barrett's metaplasia, the only human pathophysiologic condition in which a stratified squamous epithelium that is injured due to chronic acid reflux is trans-committed into an intestinal fate. The evidence we present here not only lend support to the notion that the keratinocytes are potentially the cell of origin of Barrett's metaplasia but also provide mechanistic insights linking transient acid exposure, downregulation of SPT6, stalled transcription of the master regulator of epidermal fate TP63, loss of epidermal fate, and metaplastic progression. Because Barrett's metaplasia in the esophagus is a pre-neoplastic condition with no preclinical human models, these findings have a profound impact on the modeling Barrett's metaplasia-in-a-dish.
