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Updated: Jul 29, 2025
Isolating Hair Follicle Stem Cells and Epidermal Keratinocytes from Dorsal Mouse Skin
Published on: April 29, 2016
An optimized force-triggered density gradient sedimentation method for isolation of pelage follicle dermal papilla
Lijuan Du1, Yuyang Gan1, Bowen Zheng1
1Department of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, Nan Fang Hospital of Southern Medical University, 1838 North Guangzhou AV, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Background:
The dermal papilla cells are a specialized population of mesenchymal cells located at the base of the hair follicle (HF), which possess the capacity to regulate HF morphogenesis and regeneration. However, lack of cell-type specific surface markers restricts the isolation of DP cells and application for tissue engineering purposes.
Methods:
We describe a novel force-triggered density gradient sedimentation (FDGS) method to efficiently obtain purified follicular DP-spheres cells from neonatal mouse back skin, utilizing only centrifugation and optimized density gradients.
Results:
Expression of characteristic DP cell markers, alkaline phosphatase, β-catenin, versican, and neural cell adhesion molecules, were confirmed by immunofluorescence. Further, the patch assays demonstrated that DP cells maintained their hair regenerative capacity in vivo. Compared with current methods, including microdissection and fluorescence-activated cell sorting, the FDGS technique is simpler and more efficient for isolating DP cells from neonatal mouse skin.
Conclusions:
The FDGS method will improve the research potential of neonatal mouse pelage-derived DP cells for tissue engineering purposes.
