Distinct bulge stem cell populations maintain the pilosebaceous unit in a β-catenin-dependent manner

Jimin Han; Kaijun Lin; HuiQin Choo; Yu Chen; Xuezheng Zhang; Ren-He Xu; Xusheng Wang; Yaojiong Wu

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105805

Distinct bulge stem cell populations maintain the pilosebaceous unit in a β-catenin-dependent manner

iScience. 2022 Dec 13;26(1):105805. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105805. eCollection 2023 Jan 20.

Authors

Jimin Han¹, Kaijun Lin², HuiQin Choo³, Yu Chen^{1

4}, Xuezheng Zhang², Ren-He Xu⁵, Xusheng Wang², Yaojiong Wu^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
² School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Shenzhen), Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI), Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Health Sciences and Technology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China.
⁵ Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, China.

Abstract

The pilosebaceous unit (PSU) is composed of multiple compartments and the self-renewal of PSU depends on distinct hair follicle stem cell (HFSC) populations. However, the differential roles of the HFSCs in sebaceous gland (SG) renewal have not been completely understood. Here, we performed multiple lineage tracing analysis to unveil the contribution of different HFSC populations to PSU regeneration during the hair cycle and wound healing. Our results indicated that the upper bulge stem cells contributed extensively to the SG replenishment during hair cycling, while HFSCs in the lower bugle did not. During skin wound healing, all HFSC populations participated in the SG replenishment. Moreover, β-catenin activation promoted the contribution of HFSCs to SG replenishment, whereas β-catenin deletion substantially repressed the event. Thus, our findings indicated that HFSCs contributed to SG replenishment in a β-catenin-dependent manner.

Keywords: Cell biology; Stem cells research.