Bone Morphogenetic Protein Signaling Regulates Postnatal Hair Follicle Differentiation and Cycling
September 2004
in “
The American journal of pathology
”
Bone Morphogenetic Protein BMP signaling Noggin hair follicle development hair follicle cycling catagen phase anagen phase hair follicle morphogenesis secondary hair follicles primary hair follicles progenitor cells sebaceous differentiation BMP hair growth cycle hair loss phases hair follicle growth hair follicle shrinkage stem cells oil gland differentiation
TLDR Blocking BMP signaling causes hair loss and disrupts hair growth cycles.
In the 2004 study, researchers used transgenic mice overexpressing the BMP inhibitor Noggin to explore the role of BMP signaling in hair follicle development and cycling. They found that misexpression of the Noggin transgene in hair follicle matrix cells resulted in a dramatic loss of hair postnatally, with a normal but shortened hair follicle morphogenesis followed by premature cycling and entry into the catagen phase. This led to a complete loss of hair shafts from secondary hair follicles, while primary hair follicles remained unaffected. The study demonstrated that BMP signaling is critical for the proper proliferation and differentiation of secondary hair follicles during late morphogenesis and that its inhibition can precipitate the onset of catagen and anagen phases. It also suggested that BMP signaling plays a role in lineage selection by progenitor cells in the skin, favoring hair follicle differentiation over sebaceous differentiation.
