Research article The role of Wnt/β-catenin pathway for skin-derived precursors differentiating into corneal endothelial cell-like cells

Bullous keratopathy is a serious blinding eye disease requiring corneal endothelial transplantation. However, the lack of cornea donors forced us to search for new sources of functional corneal endothelial cells (CECs). In our previous study, we have successfully differentiated the SKPs into CEC-like cells with unclear mechanism. The Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway is essential for maintaining embryonic eye development and formation. This study aimed to clarify the activity of Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in the process of skin-derived precursors (SKPs) differentiating into CEC-like cells. We showed that the expression of active beta-Catenin, p-GSK3 beta, P-LRP6 and LRP6 upregulated, indicating the activation of Wnt/beta-catenin pathway during CEC-like cells induction. What's more, when the pathway was inhibited with a specific inhibitor, the process of induction was obviously suppressed. These findings indicates that Wnt/beta-catenin pathway plays an important role in the CEC-like cells induction from SKPs. Our study lays an experimental foundation for providing abundant corneal endothelial cells and promotes CEC-like cells to be clinically applied in cellular replacement therapy or regenerative medicine in the future.