A nervous hedgehog rolls into the hair follicle stem cell scene

Delayed Wound Healing in the Elderly and a New Therapeutic Target: CD271

With the development of society, the global population is showing a trend of aging. It is well known that age is one of the factors affecting wound healing. Aging compromises the normal physiological process of wound healing, such as the change of skin structure, the decrease of growth factors, the deceleration of cell proliferation, and the weakening of migration ability, hence delaying wound healing. At present, research in adult stem cell-related technology and its derived regenerative medicine provides a novel idea for the treatment of senile wounds. Studies have confirmed that CD271 (P75 neurotropism receptor/P75NTR)-positive cells (CD271+ cells) are a kind of stem cells with a stronger ability of proliferation, differentiation, migration and secretion than CD271 negative (CD271- cells). Meanwhile, the total amount and distribution of CD271 positive cells in different ages of skin are also different, which may be related to the delayed wound healing of aging skin. Therefore, this article reviews the relationship between CD271+ cells and senile wounds and discusses a new scheme for the treatment of senile wounds.

Managing adverse events associated with vismodegib in the treatment of basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinomas are the most common form of skin cancer. Some develop into advanced cases not suitable for standard therapy. Vismodegib is the first-in-class oral hedgehog pathway inhibitor (which is dysregulated in 90% of basal cell carcinomas), and has demonstrated efficacy for advanced disease in clinical trials. An UK expert panel met to discuss management strategies for adverse events associated with vismodegib (most commonly taste disturbances, muscle cramps and alopecia). Managing patient expectations and implementing treatment breaks were considered important strategies. Quinine was useful to alleviate muscle cramps. For taste disturbances, food swaps alongside dietician referral were suggested. The experts concluded that these common adverse events can be successfully managed to allow optimum treatment duration of vismodegib.

Ovine Hair Follicle Stem Cells Derived from Single Vibrissae Reconstitute Haired Skin

Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) possess fascinating self-renewal capacity and multipotency, which play important roles in mammalian hair growth and skin wound repair. Although HFSCs from other mammalian species have been obtained, the characteristics of ovine HFSCs, as well as the methods to isolate them have not been well addressed. Here, we report an efficient strategy to obtain multipotent ovine HFSCs. Through microdissection and organ culture, we obtained keratinocytes that grew from the bulge area of vibrissa hair follicles, and even abundant keratinocytes were harvested from a single hair follicle. These bulge-derived keratinocytes are highly positive for Krt15, Krt14, Tp63, Krt19 and Itga6; in addition to their strong proliferation abilities in vitro, these keratinocytes formed new epidermis, hair follicles and sebaceous glands in skin reconstitution experiments, showing that these are HFSCs from the bulge outer root sheath. Taken together, we developed an efficient in vitro system to enrich ovine HFSCs, providing enough HFSCs for the investigations about the ovine hair cycle, aiming to promote wool production in the future.

Epithelial stem cells and implications for wound repair

Activation of epithelial stem cells and efficient recruitment of their proliferating progeny plays a critical role in cutaneous wound healing. The reepithelialized wound epidermis has a mosaic composition consisting of progeny that can be traced back both to epidermal and several types of hair follicle stem cells. The contribution of hair follicle stem cells to wound epidermis is particularly intriguing as it involves lineage identity change from follicular to epidermal. Studies from our laboratory show that hair follicle-fated bulge stem cells commit only transient amplifying epidermal progeny that participate in the initial wound re-epithelialization, but eventually are outcompeted by other epidermal clones and largely disappear after a few months. Conversely, recently described stem cell populations residing in the isthmus portion of hair follicle contribute long-lasting progeny toward wound epidermis and, arguably, give rise to new interfollicular epidermal stem cells. The role of epithelial stem cells during wound healing is not limited to regenerating stratified epidermis. By studying regenerative response in large cutaneous wounds, our laboratory uncovered that epithelial cells in the center of the wound can acquire greater morphogenetic plasticity and, together with the underlying wound dermis, can engage in an embryonic-like process of hair follicle neogenesis. Future studies should uncover the cellular and signaling basis of this remarkable adult wound regeneration phenomenon.

Brain and muscle Arnt-like protein-1 (BMAL1) controls circadian cell proliferation and susceptibility to UVB-induced DNA damage in the epidermis

The role of the circadian clock in skin and the identity of genes participating in its chronobiology remain largely unknown, leading us to define the circadian transcriptome of mouse skin at two different stages of the hair cycle, telogen and anagen. The circadian transcriptomes of telogen and anagen skin are largely distinct, with the former dominated by genes involved in cell proliferation and metabolism. The expression of many metabolic genes is antiphasic to cell cycle-related genes, the former peaking during the day and the latter at night. Consistently, accumulation of reactive oxygen species, a byproduct of oxidative phosphorylation, and S-phase are antiphasic to each other in telogen skin. Furthermore, the circadian variation in S-phase is controlled by BMAL1 intrinsic to keratinocytes, because keratinocyte-specific deletion of Bmal1 obliterates time-of-day-dependent synchronicity of cell division in the epidermis leading to a constitutively elevated cell proliferation. In agreement with higher cellular susceptibility to UV-induced DNA damage during S-phase, we found that mice are most sensitive to UVB-induced DNA damage in the epidermis at night. Because in the human epidermis maximum numbers of keratinocytes go through S-phase in the late afternoon, we speculate that in humans the circadian clock imposes regulation of epidermal cell proliferation so that skin is at a particularly vulnerable stage during times of maximum UV exposure, thus contributing to the high incidence of human skin cancers.