The Effect of EGR1 on the Proliferation of Dermal Papilla Cells

Genes (Basel). 2022 Jul 14;13(7):1242. doi: 10.3390/genes13071242.

Abstract

Early growth response factor 1 (EGR1) is a zinc-finger transcription factor that plays a vital role in the development of hair follicles. According to our previous studies, EGR1 is a transcriptional promoter of the bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7), a candidate gene involved in the proliferation of dermal papilla cells. Since hair follicles are the basis of lambskin pattern formation and dermal papilla cells (DPCs) act on hair follicle growth, in order to elucidate the role of EGR1 and hair follicles, this study aimed to investigate the biological role of EGR1 in DPCs. In our study, the EGR1 coding sequence (CDS) region was firstly cloned by polymerase chain reaction, and bioinformatics analysis was performed. Then, the function of EGR1 was detected by 5-ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine (EDU) and Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8), and Western blot (WB) was conducted to analyze the cellular effect of EGR1 on DPCs. The proliferative effect of EGR1 on DPCs was also further confirmed by detecting its expression by qPCR and WB on marker genes of proliferation, including PCNA and CDK2. The sequence of the EGR1 CDS region of a lamb was successfully cloned, and its nucleic acid sequence was analyzed and found to be highly homologous to Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, Bos taurus and Homo sapiens. Predictive analysis of the protein encoded by EGR1 revealed that it is an extra-membrane protein, and not a secretory protein, with subcellular localization in the nucleus and cytoplasm. The proliferative effect of DPCs was significantly stronger (p < 0.01) in EGR1 up-regulated DPCs compared to the controls, while the opposite result was observed in EGR1 down-regulated DPCs. Markers of proliferation including PCNA and CDK2 also appeared to be differentially upregulated in EGR1 gene overexpression compared to the controls, with the opposite result in EGR1 gene downregulation. In summary, our study revealed that EGR1 promotes the proliferation of DPCs, and we speculate that EGR1 may be closely associated with hair follicle growth and development.

Keywords: Hu sheep; cell proliferation; dermal papilla cells; early growth response factor 1.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle
  • Cell Proliferation / genetics
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Early Growth Response Protein 1 / genetics
  • Early Growth Response Protein 1 / metabolism
  • Early Growth Response Protein 1 / pharmacology
  • Gene Expression Regulation*
  • Hair Follicle*
  • Mice
  • Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / metabolism
  • Rats
  • Sheep / genetics

Substances

  • Early Growth Response Protein 1
  • Egr1 protein, mouse
  • Egr1 protein, rat
  • Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31872333, 32172689), the National Natural Science Foundation of China-CGIAR (32061143036), the Major New Varieties of Agricultural Projects in Jiangsu Province (PZCZ201739), the Open Project Program of Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety, the Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University (JILAR-KF202205), the Projects of Domesticated Animals Platform of the Ministry of Science, Key Research and Development Plan (modern agriculture) in Jiangsu Province (BE2018354), the Jiangsu Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Fund (CX(18)2003), the Jiangsu 333 Distinguished Talents Project Foundation [(2022) 2-323], and the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (22KJA230001, 22KJD230003).