Embryonic attenuated Wnt/β-catenin signaling defines niche location and long-term stem cell fate in hair follicle

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.10567
• Publication Date: 2015-12-14T12:35:29Z
• Authors: Zijian Xu; Wenjie Wang; Kaiju Jiang; Zhou Yu; Huanwei Huang; Fengchao Wang; Bin Zhou; Ting Chen
• Keywords: Cell fate determination

Long-term adult stem cells sustain tissue regeneration throughout the lifetime of an organism. They were hypothesized to originate from embryonic progenitor that acquire long-term self-renewal ability and multipotency at end organogenesis. The process through which this is achieved often remains unclear. Here, we discovered hair follicle arise occupying a niche location defined by attenuated Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Hair initiation marked placode formation, depends on activation Soon afterwards, region with signaling emerges in upper follicle. Embryonic residing gain expression cell markers become definitive Attenuation prerequisite for specification because it suppresses Sox9, required formation.