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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Induction and Analysis of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition
Published on: August 27, 2013
beta-Catenin controls hair follicle morphogenesis and stem cell differentiation in the skin
J Huelsken1, R Vogel, B Erdmann
1Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Roessle-Strasse 10, 13092, Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
beta-Catenin is an essential molecule in Wnt/wingless signaling, which controls decisive steps in embryogenesis. To study the role of beta-catenin in skin development, we introduced a conditional mutation of the gene in the epidermis and hair follicles using Cre/loxP technology. When beta-catenin is mutated during embryogenesis, formation of placodes that generate hair follicles is blocked. We show that beta-catenin is required genetically downstream of tabby/downless and upstream of bmp and shh in placode formation. If beta-catenin is deleted after hair follicles have formed, hair is completely lost after the first hair cycle. Further analysis demonstrates that beta-catenin is essential for fate decisions of skin stem cells: in the absence of beta-catenin, stem cells fail to differentiate into follicular keratinocytes, but instead adopt an epidermal fate.
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