{"doi":"10.7554/elife.62917","title":"The critical role of Hedgehog-responsive mesenchymal progenitors in meniscus development and injury repair","abstract":"Meniscal tears are associated with a high risk of osteoarthritis but currently have no disease-modifying therapies. Using a Gli1 reporter line, we found that Gli1 + cells contribute to the development of meniscus horns from 2 weeks of age. In adult mice, Gli1 + cells resided at the superficial layer of meniscus and expressed known mesenchymal progenitor markers. In culture, meniscal Gli1 + cells possessed high progenitor activities under the control of Hh signal. Meniscus injury at the anterior horn induced a quick expansion of Gli1-lineage cells. Normally, meniscal tissue healed slowly, leading to cartilage degeneration. Ablation of Gli1 + cells further hindered this repair process. Strikingly, intra-articular injection of Gli1 + meniscal cells or an Hh agonist right after injury accelerated the bridging of the interrupted ends and attenuated signs of osteoarthritis. Taken together, our work identified a novel progenitor population in meniscus and proposes a new treatment for repairing injured meniscus and preventing osteoarthritis.","journal":"eLife","year":2021,"id":174445,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":23,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9467,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":492786,"name":"Hao Sun","orcid":"0000-0001-8829-0468","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342356,"name":"Tao Gui","orcid":"0000-0003-1892-4001","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232244,"name":"Lutian Yao","orcid":"0000-0002-0652-2075","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232243,"name":"Leilei Zhong","orcid":"0000-0003-1153-4115","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232248,"name":"Wei Yu","orcid":"0000-0001-6705-8264","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293035,"name":"Su‐Jin Heo","orcid":"0000-0003-2771-5076","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":284004,"name":"Lin Han","orcid":"0000-0003-4180-1288","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232254,"name":"Nathaniel A. Dyment","orcid":"0000-0001-8708-112X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":245400,"name":"X. Sherry Liu","orcid":"0000-0001-7247-2232","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232251,"name":"Yejia Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-7484-8800","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432871,"name":"Eiki Koyama","orcid":"0000-0002-5663-6820","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232256,"name":"Fanxin Long","orcid":"0000-0001-9785-5379","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":398864,"name":"Miltiadis H. Zgonis","orcid":null,"position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":284005,"name":"Robert L. Mauck","orcid":"0000-0002-9537-603X","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232253,"name":"Jaimo Ahn","orcid":"0000-0001-8151-9987","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232259,"name":"Ling Qin","orcid":"0000-0002-2582-0078","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232246,"name":"Yulong Wei","orcid":"0000-0003-3823-9984","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":41,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:47:06.584146Z","pmid":"34085927","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}