Nestin expression in hair follicle sheath progenitor cells.
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Journal: 2003/October - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
ISSN: 0027-8424
Abstract:
The intermediate filament protein, nestin, marks progenitor cells of the CNS. Such CNS stem cells are selectively labeled by placing GFP under the control of the nestin regulatory sequences. During early anagen or growth phase of the hair follicle, nestin-expressing cells, marked by GFP fluorescence in nestin-GFP transgenic mice, appear in the permanent upper hair follicle immediately below the sebaceous glands in the follicle bulge. This is where stem cells for the hair follicle outer-root sheath are thought to be located. The relatively small, oval-shaped, nestin-expressing cells in the bulge area surround the hair shaft and are interconnected by short dendrites. The precise locations of the nestin-expressing cells in the hair follicle vary with the hair cycle. During telogen or resting phase and in early anagen, the GFP-positive cells are mainly in the bulge area. However, in mid- and late anagen, the GFP-expressing cells are located in the upper outer-root sheath as well as in the bulge area but not in the hair matrix bulb. These observations show that the nestin-expressing cells form the outer-root sheath. Results of the immunohistochemical staining showed that nestin, GFP, keratin 5/8, and keratin 15 colocalize in the hair follicle bulge cells, outer-root sheath cells, and basal cells of the sebaceous glands. These data indicate that nestin-expressing cells, marked by GFP, in the hair follicle bulge are indeed progenitors of the follicle outer-root sheath. The expression of the unique protein, nestin, in both neural stem cells and hair follicle stem cells suggests their possible relation.
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Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100(17): 9958-9961
PMID: 12904579

Nestin expression in hair follicle sheath progenitor cells

AntiCancer, Inc., 7917 Ostrow Street, San Diego, CA 92111; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724; Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307; and Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: moc.recnacitna@lla.
Contributed by Sheldon Penman, June 25, 2003
Contributed by Sheldon Penman, June 25, 2003
Copyright © 2003, The National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The intermediate filament protein, nestin, marks progenitor cells of the CNS. Such CNS stem cells are selectively labeled by placing GFP under the control of the nestin regulatory sequences. During early anagen or growth phase of the hair follicle, nestin-expressing cells, marked by GFP fluorescence in nestin-GFP transgenic mice, appear in the permanent upper hair follicle immediately below the sebaceous glands in the follicle bulge. This is where stem cells for the hair follicle outer-root sheath are thought to be located. The relatively small, oval-shaped, nestin-expressing cells in the bulge area surround the hair shaft and are interconnected by short dendrites. The precise locations of the nestin-expressing cells in the hair follicle vary with the hair cycle. During telogen or resting phase and in early anagen, the GFP-positive cells are mainly in the bulge area. However, in mid- and late anagen, the GFP-expressing cells are located in the upper outer-root sheath as well as in the bulge area but not in the hair matrix bulb. These observations show that the nestin-expressing cells form the outer-root sheath. Results of the immunohistochemical staining showed that nestin, GFP, keratin 5/8, and keratin 15 colocalize in the hair follicle bulge cells, outer-root sheath cells, and basal cells of the sebaceous glands. These data indicate that nestin-expressing cells, marked by GFP, in the hair follicle bulge are indeed progenitors of the follicle outer-root sheath. The expression of the unique protein, nestin, in both neural stem cells and hair follicle stem cells suggests their possible relation.

Keywords: stem cells, hair cycle, neurological, GFP, imaging
Abstract

Hair growth is a unique cyclic regeneration phenomenon. The hair follicle undergoes repeated cycles of periods of growth (anagen), regression (catagen), and rest (telogen) throughout the life of mammals. The progenitor or stem cells for the outer-root sheath of the hair follicle were thought to reside in the permanent upper portion of the hair follicle, the so-called bulge area (1, 2).

Recently Taylor et al. (3) reported that hair follicle bulge stem cells are potentially bipotent because they can give rise to not only cells of the hair follicle but also to epidermal cells. Other experiments (1) also have provided new evidence that the upper outer-root sheath of vibrissal (whisker) follicles of adult mice contains multipotent stem cells, which can differentiate into hair follicle matrix cells, sebaceous gland basal cells, and epidermis. Recently, Toma et al. (4) reported that multipotent adult stem cells isolated from mammalian skin dermis, termed skin-derived precursors, can proliferate and differentiate in culture to produce neurons, glia, smooth muscle cells, and adipocytes. However, the exact location of these stem cells in skin is unknown, and their functions are still unclear.

We report here the expression of nestin, a marker for neural progenitor cells, in the cells of the follicle bulge. Nestin was linked to GFP, allowing us to observe that the nestin-containing cells formed the major part of the hair follicle each cycle. This expression of the neural stem cell protein nestin in hair follicle stem cells suggests a possible relation.

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