Hairy math: insights into hair-follicle spacing and orientation.
Hair follicles in the skin have a characteristic spacing and orientation. Two recent papers (Sick et al., 2006 and Wang et al., 2006) report the use of contrasting mathematical models and experimental manipulations to gain insight into the mechanisms underlying patterns of hair-follicle distribution and orientation.
Stark
Jaroslav
J
Department of Mathematics and Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, Imperial College London, 180 Queen's Gate, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
Andl
Thomas
T
Millar
Sarah E
SE
D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D018859:Hair Follicle / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000378:metabolism
D051153:Wnt Proteins; D051176:beta Catenin