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Updated: Jun 27, 2025

Isolating Hair Follicle Stem Cells and Epidermal Keratinocytes from Dorsal Mouse Skin
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Hair follicles modulate skin barrier function.

Noah C Ford1,2, Rachel E Benedeck1,3, Matthew T Mattoon1

  • 1Department of Dermatology, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.

Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|May 7, 2024
PubMed
Summary

Hair follicles significantly regulate skin barrier function. Disrupting the upper hair follicle (uHF) impacts epidermal responses, desquamation, and sebum release, revealing follicles as key barrier modulators.

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Area of Science:

  • Dermatology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Skin barrier function is crucial for protection, primarily linked to the epidermis.
  • The role of hair follicles in skin barrier integrity remains largely unexplored.

Approach:

  • Utilized a genetic tool to conditionally ablate the Abca12 gene, essential for skin barrier formation and mutated in harlequin ichthyosis.
  • Investigated the impact of Abca12 deletion in the upper hair follicle (uHF) on skin barrier properties.

Key Points:

  • The upper hair follicle (uHF) contributes to barrier function.
  • uHF barrier disruption triggers epidermal responses and affects desquamation and sebum release.
  • uHF cells migrate into the epidermis upon barrier perturbation.
  • Neutralizing Il17a partially ameliorated disease phenotypes.

Conclusions:

  • Hair follicles are multi-faceted regulators of skin barrier function.
  • Findings highlight the uHF's active role in maintaining epidermal homeostasis and barrier integrity.