Hair follicle formation in the epidermis depends on signals from the underlying dermis and normally only occurs during late embryonic and early neonatal life. However, epidermal activation of β-catenin can induce follicle formation in adult mouse skin. One possible explanation for this observation is that epidermal cues can reprogram adult dermis to a neonatal state. On p. 5189, Fiona Watt and co-workers investigate this possibility by examining dermal fibroblasts from adult and neonatal mice. The researchers show that the gene expression profile of adult dermal fibroblasts isolated from skin in which β-catenin has induced ectopic follicles resembles that of neonatal fibroblasts rather than that of fibroblasts isolated from uninduced adult skin. This dermal reprogramming seems to originate within a specific subpopulation of fibroblasts near the hair follicle junctional zone and results in fibroblast proliferation and extracellular matrix remodelling. Together, these results suggest that the adult dermis is an unexpectedly plastic tissue, and that epidermal stem cells and their dermal niche exist in a state of dynamic interdependence.
Skin-deep dermal niches
Skin-deep dermal niches. Development 1 December 2011; 138 (23): e2301. doi:
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