Oxytocin Receptor Expression in Hair Follicle Stem Cells: A Promising Model for Biological and Therapeutic Discovery in Neuropsychiatric Disorders

The study investigated the expression of oxytocin receptors (OXTR) in rat hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) and compared it with rat cortical astrocytes and hypothalamic H32 cells. The researchers found that OXTR is abundantly expressed in HFSCs at a level comparable to the other cell types. They also found that stimulation of these receptors with oxytocin (OXT) activated specific downstream signaling pathways, such as ERK1/2, CREB, and eEF2, and caused changes in neurite length and cytoskeletal rearrangements, indicating the functionality of OXTR in HFSCs. The study concluded that rat HFSCs, which express functional OXTR, can serve as a model to investigate cellular responses to OXTR activation and contribute to understanding the progression and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders with oxytocinergic system deficiency.