Let-7b Promotes Alpaca Hair Growth via Transcriptional Repression of TGFβR I

The study concluded that TGFβR I is a target gene of let-7b, and let-7b can regulate TGFβR I expression through transcriptional repression, thereby promoting alpaca hair growth. This finding was supported by experiments involving three young male alpacas, where real-time PCR showed that TGFβR I abundance in ear skin was 7.988 times higher than in back skin. The research highlighted the role of the TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway in hair follicle regulation and was funded by grants from The National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Shanxi Agricultural University Research Startup Project.