@article {6687,
	title = {Mindin (SPON2) Is Essential for Cutaneous Fibrogenesis in a Mouse Model of Systemic Sclerosis.},
	journal = {J Invest Dermatol},
	volume = {143},
	year = {2023},
	month = {2023 May},
	pages = {699-710.e10},
	abstract = {<p>Systemic sclerosis is a fibrotic disease that initiates in the skin and progresses to internal organs, leading to a poor prognosis. Unraveling the etiology of a chronic, multifactorial disease such as systemic sclerosis has been aided by various animal models that recapitulate certain aspects of the human pathology. We found that the transcription factor SNAI1 is overexpressed in the epidermis of patients with systemic sclerosis, and a transgenic mouse recapitulating this expression pattern is sufficient to induce many clinical features of the human disease. Using this mouse model as a discovery platform, we have uncovered a critical role for the matricellular protein Mindin (SPON2) in fibrogenesis. Mindin is produced by SNAI1 transgenic skin keratinocytes and aids fibrogenesis by inducing early inflammatory cytokine production and collagen secretion in resident dermal fibroblasts. Given the dispensability of Mindin in normal tissue physiology, targeting this protein holds promise as an effective therapy for fibrosis.</p>
},
	keywords = {Animals, Disease Models, Animal, Extracellular Matrix Proteins, Fibroblasts, Fibrosis, Humans, Mice, Mice, Transgenic, Neoplasm Proteins, Scleroderma, Systemic, Skin},
	issn = {1523-1747},
	doi = {10.1016/j.jid.2022.10.011},
	author = {Rana, Isha and Kataria, Sunny and Tan, Tuan Lin and Hajam, Edries Yousaf and Kashyap, Deepak Kumar and Saha, Dyuti and Ajnabi, Johan and Paul, Sayan and Jayappa, Shashank and Ananthan, Akhil S H P and Kumar, Pankaj and Zaarour, Rania F and Haarshaadri, J and Kansagara, Gaurav and Rizvi, Abrar and Zirmire, Ravindra K and Badarinath, Krithika and Khedkar, Sneha Uday and Chandra, Yogesh and Samuel, Rekha and George, Renu and Danda, Debashish and Jacob, Paul Mazhuvanchary and Dey, Rakesh and Dhandapany, Perundurai S and He, You-Wen and Varga, John and Varghese, Shyni and Jamora, Colin}
}
@article {3345,
	title = {Snail maintains the stem/progenitor state of skin epithelial cells and carcinomas through the autocrine effect of matricellular protein Mindin.},
	journal = {Cell Rep},
	volume = {40},
	year = {2022},
	month = {2022 09 20},
	pages = {111390},
	abstract = {<p>Preservation of a small population of cancer stem cells (CSCs) within a heterogeneous carcinoma serves as a paradigm to understand how select cells in a tissue maintain their undifferentiated status. In both embryogenesis and cancer, Snail has been correlated with stemness, but the molecular underpinning of this phenomenon remains largely ill-defined. In models of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), we discovered a non-epithelial-mesenchymal transition function for the transcription factor Snail in maintaining the stemness of epidermal keratinocytes. Snail-expressing cells secrete the matricellular protein Mindin, which functions in an autocrine fashion to activate a Src-STAT3 pathway to reinforce their stem/progenitor phenotype. This pathway is activated by the engagement of Mindin with the leukocyte-specific integrin, CD11b (ITGAM), which is also unexpectedly expressed by epidermal keratinocytes. Interestingly, disruption of this signaling module in human cSCC attenuates tumorigenesis, suggesting that targeting Mindin would be a promising therapeutic approach to hinder cancer recurrence.</p>
},
	keywords = {Carcinoma, Squamous Cell, Cell Line, Tumor, Epithelial Cells, Extracellular Matrix Proteins, Humans, Integrins, Neoplasm Proteins, Neoplasm Recurrence, Local, Neoplastic Stem Cells, Skin Neoplasms, Snail Family Transcription Factors},
	issn = {2211-1247},
	doi = {10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111390},
	author = {Badarinath, Krithika and Dam, Binita and Kataria, Sunny and Zirmire, Ravindra K and Dey, Rakesh and Kansagara, Gaurav and Ajnabi, Johan and Hegde, Akshay and Singh, Randhir and Masudi, Tafheem and Sambath, Janani and Sachithanandan, Sasikala P and Kumar, Prashant and Gulyani, Akash and He, You-Wen and Krishna, Sudhir and Jamora, Colin}
}
