Epithelial-mesenchymal crosstalk: the scriptwriter of craniofacial morphogenesis

Junjie Lu; Bo Peng; Wenyi Wang; Yi Zou

doi:10.3389/fcell.2024.1497002

Epithelial-mesenchymal crosstalk: the scriptwriter of craniofacial morphogenesis

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2024 Nov 8:12:1497002. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1497002. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Junjie Lu^#¹, Bo Peng^#², Wenyi Wang¹, Yi Zou¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science and Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
² Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Epithelial-mesenchymal interactions (EMI) are fundamental mechanisms in regulating development and organogenesis. Here we summarized the signaling mechanisms involved in EMI in the major developmental events during craniofacial morphogenesis, including neural crest cell induction, facial primordial growth as well as fusion processes. Regional specificity/polarity are demonstrated in the expression of most signaling molecules that usually act in a mutually synergistic/antagonistic manner. The underlying mechanisms of pathogenesis due to disrupted EMI was also discussed in this review.

Keywords: FEZ; cleft lip/palate; craniofacial development; epithelial-mesenchymal interaction; neural crest cells.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was sponsored by the Guangdong Provincial Key R&D Program of Department of Natural Resources of Guangdong Province (#2023B1111050011) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong (#2023A1515010293).