Editors' Picks

In a study on hereditary hypotrichosis simplex, a rare form of hair loss, Shimomura and colleagues identified a mutation in the APCDD1 gene that disrupts Wnt signaling, which is crucial for hair follicle development. This mutation may also be involved in other hair disorders like androgenetic alopecia and alopecia areata. Greenberger and colleagues demonstrated that dexamethasone inhibits vasculogenesis in infantile hemangiomas by reducing VEGF-A secretion, providing insights for future treatments. Lebrin and colleagues showed that thalidomide reduces bleeding in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia patients by affecting mural cell coverage of blood vessels. Snippert and colleagues discovered that Lgr6 marks a primitive stem cell population in the skin that contributes to all lineages and wound repair. Lastly, Loeys and colleagues found mutations in the fibrillin-1 gene in stiff skin syndrome, which affects microfibril assembly and TGF-ß signaling, potentially relevant to systemic sclerosis as well.