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. 2019 Jun 10;9:451. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2019.00451

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Copyright © 2019 Kervarrec, Samimi, Guyétant, Sarma, Chéret, Blanchard, Berthon, Schrama, Houben and Touzé.

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) and the copyright owner(s) 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.

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Graphic summary of the 4 putative cells of origin of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). (A) Physiological MC differentiation (B) First hypothesis: physiological MC as the cell of origin of MCC, suggesting that T antigens can induce transformation in this cell type. (C–E) Second hypothesis: oncogenic events occur in a non-MC and induce transformation and acquisition of an MC-like phenotype. Potential ancestries are epithelial progenitors (C), fibroblast/dermal stem cells (D) or pre/pro B cells (E) from the B cell lineage (F). MC, Merkel cell; MCPyV, Merkel cell polyomavirus.