June 2005
Promoting hair growth
In the July 1st issue of Genes & Development, Dr. Elaine Fuchs and colleagues at the Rockefeller University determine the effect of Wnt signaling on stem cells of the mouse hair follicle in vivo.
The researchers used both gain-of-function and loss-of-function â-catenin mutants to demonstrate that â-catenin stabilization drives the telogen to anagen transition by reducing the threshold for stem cell activation. Dr. Fuchs explains, "Our prior research led us to suspect that expression of genes controlled by â-catenin/Wnt signaling are involved in coaxing a dormant stem cell to become active and produce a hair follicle.
This study not only provides the best evidence to date to demonstrate this, but it also identifies a group of key genes involved in this crucial activation step."