Targeted Disruption of Stat3 Reveals a Major Role for Follicular Stem Cells in Skin Tumor Initiation

    October 2009 in “ Cancer research ”
    Dae Joon Kim, Ken Kataoka, Dharanija Rao, Kaoru Kiguchi, George Cotsarelis, John DiGiovanni
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    TLDR Disrupting Stat3 in hair follicle stem cells greatly reduces skin tumor formation.
    The study demonstrated that Stat3 was crucial for the survival of DNA-damaged keratinocyte stem cells (KSCs) in the bulge region of hair follicles during skin tumor initiation in mice. Disrupting Stat3 in these cells led to increased apoptosis, reduced Ha-ras mutations, and an ~80% reduction in skin tumor formation. Only 30% of Stat3-deficient mice developed papillomas compared to 100% of control mice, indicating that bulge region KSCs were primary targets for tumor initiation. These findings suggested that targeting Stat3 in KSCs could be a viable strategy for preventing skin cancer.
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