title: Mimicking hair disorders by genetic manipulation of organ-cultured human hair follicles.
abstract: Human hair follicles can be dissected out of scalp skin and cultured in vitro in defined growth medium. Hair follicle organ cultures have previously been used to investigate the molecular and cellular mechanisms through which various factors regulate the maintenance and cycling of adult hair follicles. In this issue, Samuelov et al. transfected organ-cultured human hair follicles with siRNA nucleotides and suppressed the expression of the endogenous P-cadherin gene in follicular keratinocytes. Knocking down the expression of P-cadherin in hair follicles in vitro recapitulated the hair follicle phenotype observed in patients with hypotrichosis with juvenile macular dystrophy (HJMD) and enabled the authors to establish a cause-effect relationship between loss of P-cadherin and suppression of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway and upregulation of TGFβ2 during development of the hair abnormalities observed in HJMD patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA. Electronic address: jiang.chen@ucdenver.edu.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
authors.forename: Dennis R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Roop
mesh_terms: D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D053781:Transforming Growth Factor beta2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D060449:Wnt Signaling Pathway / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D053781:Transforming Growth Factor beta2