Open AccessAn important role of podoplanin in hair follicle growth
Author(s) -
Sun Young Yoon,
Lothar C. Dieterich,
Carlotta Tacconi,
Marko Sesartić,
Yuliang He,
Lorenz M. Brunner,
Oh Sang Kwon,
Michael Detmar
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0219938
Subject(s) - podoplanin , hair follicle , extracellular matrix , microbiology and biotechnology , focal adhesion , keratinocyte , stem cell , cell adhesion , biology , cell growth , chemistry , cell , lymphatic system , immunology , cell culture , signal transduction , biochemistry , genetics
Podoplanin (PDPN) is a glycoprotein that is expressed by various cell types, including keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and lymphatic endothelial cells. We found that PDPN is expressed in the hair follicle (HF) keratinocyte region and HF stem cell area during the late anagen phase but not during the telogen phase in mice. Importantly, keratinocyte-specific PDPN deletion in mice (K5-Cre;PDPN flox/flox ) promoted anagen HF growth after depilation-induced HF regeneration as compared to control mice. RNA sequencing, followed by gene ontology analysis, showed down-regulation of focal adhesion and extracellular matrix interaction pathways in HF stem cells isolated from K5-Cre;PDPN flox/flox mice as compared to control mice. Furthermore, HF keratinocytes isolated from K5-Cre;PDPN flox/flox mice exhibited a decreased ability to interact with collagen type I in cell adhesion assays. Taken together, these results show that PDPN deletion promotes HF cycling, possibly via reduced focal adhesion and concomitantly enhanced migration of HF stem cells towards the bulb region. They also indicate potential new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of conditions associated with hair loss.