Transcriptomic Analysis to Identify Protective Dermal Papilla Signature in Occipital Scalp

The document presents a study that investigated the protective transcriptional signature of dermal papilla (DP) cells in the occipital (O) scalp, which are resistant to androgenetic alopecia (AGA), compared to the frontal (F) scalp where hair follicles are prone to miniaturization. The study involved transcriptomic profiling of patient-matched DP and dermal sheath (DS) cells from F and O hair follicles (HF) from 4 male patients undergoing hair transplantation surgery. The analysis identified 16 genes with significantly higher expression levels in the ODP compared to the other dermal cell types. These genes are believed to protect the ODP from size reduction and cell loss during the hair cycle, thus preventing miniaturization of OHF. The study also developed an animal-free model for high throughput analysis of inductivity, where ODP cells combined with epidermal keratinocytes self-organized into organoid structures. These organoids showed higher expression of the hair differentiation marker K75, indicating DP-induced keratinocyte reprogramming. The research aims to further assess how these ODP signature genes contribute to the protective role against AGA.