SIRT7 activates quiescent hair follicle stem cells to ensure hair growth in mice
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ABSTRACT: Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are maintained in a quiescent state until activated to grow, but the mechanisms that reactivate the quiescent HFSC reservoir are unclear. Here, we find that loss of Sirt7 in mice impedes hair follicle life-cycle transition from telogen to anagen phase, resulting in delay of hair growth. Conversely, Sirt7 overexpression during telogen phase facilitated HSFC anagen entry and accelerated hair growth. Mechanistically, Sirt7 is upregulated in HFSCs during the telogen-to-anagen transition, and HFSC-specific Sirt7 knockout mice (Sirt7f/f;K15-Cre) exhibit a similar hair growth delay. At the molecular level, Sirt7 interacts with and deacetylates the transcriptional regulator Nfatc1 at K612, causing PA28?-dependent proteasomal degradation to terminate Nfatc1-mediated telogen quiescence and boost anagen entry. Cyclosporin A, a potent calcineurin inhibitor, suppresses nuclear retention of Nfatc1, abrogates hair follicle cycle delay, and promotes hair growth in Sirt7-/- mice. Furthermore, Sirt7 is downregulated in aged HFSCs, and exogenous Sirt7 overexpression promotes hair growth in aged animals. These data reveal that Sirt7 activates HFSCs by destabilizing Nfatc1 to ensure hair follicle cycle initiation.
Project description:Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are maintained in a quiescent state until activated to grow, but the mechanisms that reactivate the quiescent HFSC reservoir are unclear. Here, we find that loss of Sirt7 in mice impedes hair follicle life-cycle transition from telogen to anagen phase, resulting in delay of hair growth. Conversely, Sirt7 overexpression during telogen phase facilitated HSFC anagen entry and accelerated hair growth. Mechanistically, Sirt7 is upregulated in HFSCs during the telogen-to-anagen transition, and HFSC-specific Sirt7 knockout mice (Sirt7f/f ;K15-Cre) exhibit a similar hair growth delay. At the molecular level, Sirt7 interacts with and deacetylates the transcriptional regulator Nfatc1 at K612, causing PA28γ-dependent proteasomal degradation to terminate Nfatc1-mediated telogen quiescence and boost anagen entry. Cyclosporin A, a potent calcineurin inhibitor, suppresses nuclear retention of Nfatc1, abrogates hair follicle cycle delay, and promotes hair growth in Sirt7-/- mice. Furthermore, Sirt7 is downregulated in aged HFSCs, and exogenous Sirt7 overexpression promotes hair growth in aged animals. These data reveal that Sirt7 activates HFSCs by destabilizing Nfatc1 to ensure hair follicle cycle initiation.
Project description:Hair growth is the cyclically regulated process that is characterized by growing phase (anagen), regression phase (catagen) and resting phase (telogen). Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) play pivotal role in the control of hair growth cycle. It has been notified that stem cells have the distinguished metabolic signature compared to differentiated cells, such as the preference to glycolysis rather than mitochondrial respiration. Crif1 is a mitochondrial protein that regulates the synthesis and insertion of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) polypeptides to inner membrane of mitochondria. Several studies demonstrate that tissue-specific knockout of Crif1 leads to mitochondrial dysfunction. In this study, we investigated the effect of mitochondrial dysfunction in terms of Crif1 deficiency on the hair growth cycle of adult mice. We created two kinds of inducible conditional knockout (icKO) mice. In epidermal specific icKO mice (Crif1 K14icKO), hair growth cycle was significantly retarded compared to wild type mice. Similarly, HFSC specific icKO mice (Crif1 K15icKO) showed significant retardation of hair growth cycle in depilation-induced anagen model. Interestingly, flow cytometry revealed that HFSC populations were maintained in Crif1 K15icKO mice. These results suggest that mitochondrial function in HFSCs is important for the progression of hair growth cycle, but not for maintenance of HFSCs.
Project description:Hair follicles (HFs) undergo precisely regulated cycles of active regeneration (anagen), involution (catagen), and relative quiescence (telogen). Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) play important roles in regenerative cycling. Elucidating mechanisms that govern HFSC behavior can help uncover the underlying principles of hair development, hair growth disorders, and skin cancers. RNA-binding proteins of the Musashi (Msi) have been implicated in the biology of different stem cell types, yet they have not been studied in HFSCs. Here we utilized gain- and loss-of-function mouse models to demonstrate that forced MSI2 expression retards anagen entry and consequently delays hair growth, whereas loss of Msi2 enhances hair regrowth. Furthermore, our findings show that Msi2 maintains quiescent state of HFSCs in the process of the telogen-to-anagen transition. At the molecular level, our unbiased transcriptome profiling shows that Msi2 represses Hedgehog signaling activity and that Shh is its direct target in the hair follicle. Taken together, our findings reveal the importance of Msi2 in suppressing hair regeneration and maintaining HFSC quiescence. The previously unreported Msi2-Shh-Gli1 pathway adds to the growing understanding of the complex network governing cyclic hair growth.
Project description:How stem cells maintain their identity and potency as tissues change during growth is not well understood. In mammalian hair, it is unclear how hair follicle stem cells can enter an extended period of quiescence during the resting phase but retain stem cell potential and be subsequently activated for growth. Here, we use lineage tracing and gene expression mapping to show that the Wnt target gene Axin2 is constantly expressed throughout the hair cycle quiescent phase in outer bulge stem cells that produce their own Wnt signals. Ablating Wnt signaling in the bulge cells causes them to lose their stem cell potency to contribute to hair growth and undergo premature differentiation instead. Bulge cells express secreted Wnt inhibitors, including Dickkopf (Dkk) and secreted frizzled-related protein 1 (Sfrp1). However, the Dickkopf 3 (Dkk3) protein becomes localized to the Wnt-inactive inner bulge that contains differentiated cells. We find that Axin2 expression remains confined to the outer bulge, whereas Dkk3 continues to be localized to the inner bulge during the hair cycle growth phase. Our data suggest that autocrine Wnt signaling in the outer bulge maintains stem cell potency throughout hair cycle quiescence and growth, whereas paracrine Wnt inhibition of inner bulge cells reinforces differentiation.
Project description:Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) and dermal papilla cells (DPCs) are crucial in the biogenesis and maintenance of hair follicles (HFs). This study demonstrated that a fragment derived from aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-interacting multifunctional protein1 (AIMP1) secreted from HFSCs activated DPCs and maintained HF homeostasis. A histological analysis revealed that AIMP1 levels in HF decreased with hair loss. Hair regrowth in AIMP1-induced mice was faster than in non-induced mice. Deletion mapping revealed 41 amino acids (TN41, aa 6-46) as the active region of AIMP1. The N-terminal peptide fragment of AIMP1 generated by MMP1 was secreted from Wnt-treated HFSCs to activate DPCs. TN41 activated Akt and ERK, increased β-catenin, and enhanced DPC activation. TN41 promoted hair shaft elongation in cultured human HFs and improved the hair-inducing activity of cultured DPC spheroids. Our findings suggest that the AIMP1 fragment secreted from HFSCs stimulates active hair regrowth through activating DPCs.
Project description:Hair loss is a debilitating condition associated with the depletion of dermal papilla cells (DPCs), which can be replenished by dermal sheath cells (DSCs). Hence, strategies aimed at increasing the populations of DPCs and DSCs hold promise for the treatment of hair loss. In this study, we demonstrated in mice that introduced exogenous DPCs and DSCs (hair follicle mesenchymal stem cells) could effectively migrate and integrate into the dermal papilla and dermal sheath niches, leading to enhanced hair growth and prolonged anagen phases. However, the homing rates of DPCs and DSCs were influenced by various factors, including recipient mouse depilation, cell passage number, cell dose, and immune rejection. Through in vitro and in vivo experiments, we also discovered that the CXCL13/CXCR5 pathway mediated the homing of DPCs and DSCs into hair follicle niches. This study underscores the potential of cell-based therapies for hair loss by targeted delivery of DPCs and DSCs to their respective niches and sheds light on the intriguing concept that isolated mesenchymal stem cells can home back to their original niche microenvironment.
Project description:Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) are hedgehog-driven tumors that resemble follicular and interfollicular epidermal basal keratinocytes and hence long have been thought to arise from these cells. However, the actual cell of origin is unknown. Using cell fate tracking of X-ray induced BCCs in Ptch1(+/-) mice, we found their essentially exclusive origin to be keratin 15-expressing stem cells of the follicular bulge. However, conditional loss of p53 not only enhanced BCC carcinogenesis from the bulge but also produced BCCs from the interfollicular epidermis, at least in part by enhancing Smo expression. This latter finding is consistent with the lack of visible tumors on ears and tail, sites lacking Smo expression, in Ptch1(+/-) mice.
Project description:Background: Angrogenetic alopecia (AGA) is one of the most prevalent hair loss disorders worldwide. The hair follicle stem cell (HFSC) is closely related to the formation of hair follicle (HF) structure and HF self-renewal. The activation of HFSC in AGA is critical for hair growth. Pilose antler has been reported to have hair growth-promoting activity, but the mechanism of action on AGA and HFSC has not been reported. Methods: We previously extracted an active component from the pilose antler known as PAEs. In this study, we conducted experiments using AGA mice and HFSC. The effects of PAEs on hair growth in AGA mice were firstly detected, and then the mechanisms of PAEs for AGA were predicted by integrating network pharmacology and de novo transcriptomics data of pilose antler. Finally, biological experiments were used to validate the molecular mechanism of PAEs in treating AGA both in vivo and in vitro. Results: It was found that PAEs promoted hair regrowth by accelerating the activation of anagen, delaying the anagen-catagen transition. It also alleviated the morphological changes, such as hair shortening, thinning, miniaturization, and HF number reduction, and regulated the hair regeneration process of four subtypes of hair. We further found that PAEs could promote the proliferation of HFSC, outer root sheath (ORS) cells, and hair bulb cells in AGA mice. We then integrated network pharmacology and pilose antler transcriptomics data to predict that the mechanism of PAEs treatment in AGA mice is closely related to the PI3K-AKT/Wnt-β-Catenin pathways. Subsequently, it was also verified that PAEs could activate both pathways in the skin of AGA mice. In addition, we found that PAEs perhaps increased the number of blood vessels around dermal papilla (DP) in experiments in vivo. Meanwhile, the PAEs stimulated the HFSC proliferation in vitro and activated the AKT and Wnt pathways. However, the proliferative activity of HFSC was inhibited after blocking the Wnt pathway and AKT activity. Conclusion: This study suggests that the hair growth-promoting effect of PAEs in AGA mice may be closely related to the stimulation of the AKT and Wnt pathways, which in turn activates the proliferation of HFSC.
Project description:Various types of stem cells reside in the skin, including keratinocyte progenitor cells, melanocyte progenitor cells, skin-derived precursors (SKPs), and nestin-expressing hair follicle-associated-pluripotent (HAP) stem cells. HAP stem cells, located in the bulge area of the hair follicle, have been shown to differentiate to nerve cells, glial cells, keratinocytes, smooth muscle cells, cardiac muscle cells, and melanocytes. HAP stem cells are positive for the stem-cell marker CD34, as well as K15-negative, suggesting their relatively undifferentiated state. Therefore, HAP stem cells may be the most primitive stem cells in the skin. Moreover, HAP stem cells can regenerate the epidermis and at least parts of the hair follicle. These results suggest that HAP stem cells may be the origin of other stem cells in the skin. Transplanted HAP stem cells promote the recovery of peripheral-nerve and spinal-cord injuries and have the potential for heart regeneration as well. HAP stem cells are readily accessible from everyone, do not form tumors, and can be cryopreserved without loss of differentiation potential. These results suggest that HAP stem cells may have greater potential than iPS or ES cells for regenerative medicine.
Project description:Changes in external light patterns can alter cell activities in peripheral tissues through slow entrainment of the central clock in suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). It remains unclear whether cells in otherwise photo-insensitive tissues can achieve rapid responses to changes in external light. Here we show that light stimulation of animals' eyes results in rapid activation of hair follicle stem cells with prominent hair regeneration. Mechanistically, light signals are interpreted by M1-type intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), which signal to the SCN via melanopsin. Subsequently, efferent sympathetic nerves are immediately activated. Increased norepinephrine release in skin promotes hedgehog signaling to activate hair follicle stem cells. Thus, external light can directly regulate tissue stem cells via an ipRGC-SCN autonomic nervous system circuit. Since activation of sympathetic nerves is not limited to skin, this circuit can also facilitate rapid adaptive responses to external light in other homeostatic tissues.