Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Foxp4 + Mandibular Skeletal Stem Cells Orchestrate Bone/Tooth Development and Regeneration
doi: 10.64898/2026.04.29.721551
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) scRNA-seq workflow and experimental scheme. (B) UMAP visualization of 7 cell clusters in E12.5 mouse mandible. In total, 12,584 single cells from 5 embryos were analyzed. Dotted lines indicated the mdSSC cluster. (C) Violin plots showing the expression of feature genes across the 7 cell clusters. Marker genes for annotating each cell cluster were color-coded on the right. (D) Pie chart showing the cell ratios of each cell cluster. (E) UMAP visualization of the osteogenic, chondrogenic and odontogenic trajectories simulated by Monocle3. Diffusion pseudotime was indicated in the upper right panel. (F) Circle plot showing cell-cell interactions among the 7 cell clusters. The interaction strength (indicated by line thickness) was calculated by CellChat. (G) Heatmap showing regulons enriched in each cell cluster. The AUC score (row scaling) was computed. Three representative regulons (out of top 10 regulons) for each cell cluster were listed on the right. (H) Binary activities of Meis1, Sox9, Msx2 and Lhx8 regulons were shown by UMAP plots. (I) Transplantation workflow and experimental scheme. (J and K) Movat’s pentachrome staining after renal subcapsular transplantation of Foxp4 + mdSSCs (J) or control (K) cells for 4 weeks. Cartilage (i) and bone (ii) formation were shown. The tdTomato (tdT) signal indicated donor-derived cells (J, lower left panel). (L) Quantification of the renal subcapsular transplantation data (n=10 mice per group from 5 independent experiments). (M) Representative microCT image of the ectopic tooth formed by Foxp4 + mdSSCs 4 weeks after nasal sinus transplantation. Arrowheads indicated the tooth cups. (N and O) Safranin O/Fast Green (N) and IF (O) staining of the ectopic tooth formed by Foxp4 + mdSSCs 4 weeks after nasal sinus transplantation. Foxp4 + mdSSCs from E12.5 Foxp4-CreERT2; tdTomato embryos were transplanted. ame: ameloblast, ena: enamel, den: dentin, od: odontoblast. (P and Q) Safranin O/Fast Green (P) and IF (Q) staining of the native tooth in the recipient mice. ame: ameloblast, ena: enamel, den: dentin, od: odontoblast.
Article Snippet: For scRNA-seq library construction, Chromium Single Cell 3’ Library and Gel Bead Kit V2 (10X Genomics, PN120237) was used to generate single cell gel beads in emulsion (GEM).
Techniques: Expressing, Marker, Diffusion-based Assay, Transplantation Assay, Staining, Control, Derivative Assay