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Vinsland E, Salas SM, Kapustová I, Hu L, Webb S, Li X, He X, Nilsson M, Haniffa M, Barker R, Persson O, Raleigh DR, Sundström E, Lönnerberg P, Linnarsson S
bioRxiv - (-) - [2025-07-13; online 2025-07-13]
The vertebrate central nervous system is enveloped by the meninges, consisting of the pia, arachnoid, and dura layers. The arachnoid is hypothesised to give rise to the most common primary intracranial tumours, meningiomas. However, molecular evidence supporting this hypothesis is lacking. There are no effective medical therapies to treat meningiomas that are resistant to local interventions, encumbered by our limited understanding of their cellular origin. To address this limitation in our understanding of meningioma biology, we generated a comprehensive reference single cell and spatial transcriptomic atlas of human fetal meninges at post-conceptional weeks 5-13. We found that the meningeal layers develop concurrently, and identified an inner CDH1-positive dura cell layer expressing tight junction genes consistent with barrier function. We show that transcriptionally, meningioma cells resemble dura-lineage cells, and that common meningioma driver genes were expressed preferentially in the dura lineage. Our findings suggest that meningiomas originate from dura lineage cells.
NGI Stockholm (Genomics Production) [Service]
National Genomics Infrastructure [Service]
PubMed 40672210
DOI 10.1101/2025.07.08.663122
Crossref 10.1101/2025.07.08.663122
pmc: PMC12265625
pii: 2025.07.08.663122