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REVIEW article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Stem Cell Research
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1452258
This article is part of the Research Topic Telocytes in Tissue Organization in Health and Disease View all 3 articles

Telocytes in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: Contributions to Pathology and Therapeutic Potentials

Provisionally accepted
Ronaldo Paolo Panganiban Ronaldo Paolo Panganiban Christina M Mcaninch Christina M Mcaninch Marina Chulkina Marina Chulkina Irina Pinchuk Irina Pinchuk *
  • Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Telocytes, a novel mesenchymal cell population, are characterized by their distinctive long and slender projections known as telopodes and have garnered significant interest since their formal introduction to the literature in 2010. These cells have been identified in various tissues, including the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, where they are suggested to play important roles in maintaining structural integrity, immune modulation, and barrier function. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which include Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), are characterized by chronic inflammation and fibrosis. While limited information is available on the fate of telocytes in this group of diseases, it has been suggested that loss/plasticity of telocytes can be among the key factors contributing to their pathogenesis. This review focuses on the current understanding of telocytes, their structural features, and their distribution within the GI tract under gut homeostasis and IBD. We also discuss the roles of these cells in immune regulation and intestinal repair. We highlight evidence implicating telocytes in the pathogenesis of IBD and other chronic inflammatory diseases that share similar pathophysiological processes with IBD. Lastly, we discuss the current challenges in gut telocyte biology and the potential therapeutic implications of telocytes in IBD.

    Keywords: Telocyte, Fibrosis, IBD, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease

    Received: 20 Jun 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Panganiban, Mcaninch, Chulkina and Pinchuk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Irina Pinchuk, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.