Telogen Elongation in the Hair Cycle of ob/ob Mice

The study examined hair cycle abnormalities in ob/ob mice, which have a leptin gene mutation and are used to model obesity and diabetes. The researchers compared the hair cycle progression of 36 male ob/ob mice aged 6 to 24 weeks with 15 male normal mice aged 6 to 10 weeks. They discovered that while normal mice transitioned through hair cycle phases as expected, ob/ob mice entered the telogen phase at 10 weeks and remained there until 24 weeks, indicating a prolonged resting phase. This suggests that ob/ob mice could be a model for telogen effluvium, a hair loss condition characterized by an extended telogen phase. The study's findings, which used histological and immunohistochemical methods, show that ob/ob mice have a shortened anagen phase and an elongated telogen phase, which could be important for understanding hair loss and developing treatments.