Transcriptional profiling of bulge stem cells

ABSTRACT: In adult skin, each hair follicle contains a reservoir of stem cells (the bulge), which can be mobilized to regenerate the new follicle with each hair cycle and to reepithelialize epidermis during wound repair. Here we report new methods that permit their clonal analyses and engraftment and demonstrate the two defining features of stem cells, namely self-renewal and multi-potency. We also show that, within the bulge, there are two distinct populations, one of which maintains basal lamina contact and temporally precedes the other, which is suprabasal and arises only after the start of the first postnatal hair cycle. This spatial distinction endows them with discrete transcriptional programs, but surprisingly, both populations are growth inhibited in the niche but can self-renew in vitro and make epidermis and hair when grafted. These findings suggest that the niche microenvironment imposes intrinsic “stemness” features without restricting the establishment of epithelial polarity and changes in gene expression. FACS was used to isolate pure populations of living total K14-GFP-actin expressing cells and K14-GFP-actin ?6high CD34high cells from postnatal d49 mouse back skins for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. By comparing the transcriptional profile of FACS-isolated GFP ?6high CD34high expressing cells with FACS-isolated total GFP cells, we determined the genes differentially regulated in basal bulge stem cells in telogen stage comparing to total epidermis

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

SUBMITTER: KHALIL KASS YOUSSEF 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-41704 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress