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Isolating Hair Follicle Stem Cells and Epidermal Keratinocytes from Dorsal Mouse Skin
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Published on: April 29, 2016

Interfollicular epidermal homeostasis: dicing with differentiation.

David P Doupé1, Philip H Jones

  • 1Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, UK.

Experimental Dermatology
|March 16, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Epidermal homeostasis is not maintained by stem cells but by continuously cycling progenitor cells. This new model explains tissue maintenance through random cell division with equal probabilities for generating differentiated and progenitor daughters.

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Area of Science:

  • Dermatology
  • Cell Biology
  • Developmental Biology

Background:

  • The traditional model of epidermal homeostasis proposed long-lived stem cells generating transit amplifying (TA) cells.
  • This model also suggested epidermal proliferative units (EPUs) organized around central stem cells.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To re-evaluate existing literature and recent lineage tracing studies on epidermal homeostasis.
  • To challenge the widely accepted stem/TA and EPU hypotheses.
  • To propose a new model for epidermal maintenance.

Main Methods:

  • Re-evaluation of historical studies on tissue architecture and cell proliferation.
  • Review of large-scale lineage tracing studies in transgenic mice.

Main Results:

  • Numerous older studies conflict with the epidermal proliferative unit (EPU) model.
  • Recent lineage tracing studies in mice exclude the stem/TA and EPU hypotheses.
  • The epidermis is maintained by a single population of functionally equivalent cycling progenitor cells.

Conclusions:

  • Epidermal homeostasis is maintained by continuously cycling progenitor cells, not stem cells.
  • Progenitor cell division outcomes are random, with equal probabilities for generating differentiated and progenitor daughters.
  • This model aligns with other tissues maintained by cycling cells with stochastic fate.