Calling long distance: Cell cycle-dependent Ca2+ flows connect stem cells across regeneration tissues

Abstract

How adult stem cells signal in vivo over time to coordinate their fate and behavior across self-renewing tissues remains a challenging question. In this issue, Moore et al. (2023. J. Cell Biol.https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202302095) combine high-resolution live imaging in mice with machine learning tools to reveal temporally regulated tissue-scale patterns of Ca2+ signaling orchestrated by cycling basal stem cells of the skin epidermis.

Figure 1.

Cell cycle–controlled short- and long-range Ca²⁺ signal dynamics coordinates stem cell cycle in the epidermis. (A and B) Moore et al. (1) combined high resolution intravital imaging of large areas of the basal epidermis (A) with new unsupervised machine learning called GSTH (B) to assess single cell signaling dynamics of thousands of cells and local and large distance spatiotemporal coordination of signals to monitor Ca²⁺ signaling. (C) Model for spatiotemporal coordination of Ca²⁺ signaling across the basal stem cell compartment of the epidermis. Cells in G2 are essential to amplify signals within local signaling neighborhoods to control and reinforce robust long-distance communication, whereas G1 cells, through high expression of Cx43, are essential to propagate signals between local neighborhoods.