A 4D road map for the formation of hair follicles (2024)

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09 June 2021

Combined imaging and gene-expression analyses reveal that the arrangement of cells in concentric rings in the disc-like structures that give rise to hair follicles predetermines their eventual fate and location in mature follicles.

Nivedita Saxena⁰ &
Michael Rendl¹

Nivedita Saxena
1. Nivedita Saxena is at the Black Family Stem Cell Institute and in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Department of Dermatology and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York 10029, USA.
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Michael Rendl
1. Michael Rendl is at the Black Family Stem Cell Institute and in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Department of Dermatology and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York 10029, USA.
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As a child, you might dream one day of becoming an astronaut and, the next day, of becoming a ballet dancer — the possibilities are endless. Eventually, this wealth of choice is whittled down by external circ*mstances and internal interests. Similarly, precursor cells in early embryos make a series of stepwise ‘decisions’ governed by external forces and internal factors to generate the diverse array of cell types present in adult organisms¹. Writing in Nature, Morita et al.² show that the fate of cells that eventually make up mature hair follicles is determined by their positioning in concentric rings of nascent follicle structures during embryonic skin development. In this case, how and where cells begin their developmental journey ultimately decides their destination.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Read the paper: Tracing the origin of hair follicle stem cells
Relax to grow more hair
Regenerative medicine could pave the way to treating baldness

Subjects

Developmental biology
Stem cells

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