Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) forms part of the connective tissue of normal human hair follicles

Abstract

Hair follicle cycling is driven by epithelial-mesenchymal interactions (EMI), which require extracellular matrix (ECM) modifications to control the crosstalk between key epithelial-and mesenchymal-derived growth factors and cytokines. The exact roles of these ECM modifications in hair cycle-associated EMI are still unknown. Here, we used differential microarray analysis of laser capture-microdissected human scalp hair follicles (HF) to identify new ECM components that distinguish fibroblasts from the connective tissue sheath (CTS) from those of the follicular dermal papilla (DP). These analyses provide the first evidence that normal human CTS fibroblasts are characterized by the selective in situ-transcription of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP). Following this up on the protein level, COMP was found to be hair cycle-dependent, suggesting critical role in this process: COMP is expressed during telogen and early anagen at regions of EMI and is degraded during catagen (only the CTS adjacent to the bulge remains COMP+ during catagen). Notably, COMP gene expression in vitro suggests direct correlation with the expression of TGFb2 in CTS fibroblasts. This raises the question whether COMP expression undergoes regulation by transforming growth factor, beta (TGFb) signalling. The intrafollicular COMP expression suggests to be functionally important and deserves further scrutiny in hair biology as indicated by the fact that altered COMP expression might be associated with scant fine hair in the case of some chondrodysplasia and scleroderma patients. Together these results reveal for the first time that COMP is part of the ECM and suggests its important role in normal human HF biology.

Effects of a Closed Space Environment on Gene Expression in Hair Follicles of Astronauts in the International Space Station

“…COMP was found to be dependent on the hair cycle, expressed during telogen and early anagen and degraded during catagen [ 38 ]. From our results, COMP was upregulated during spaceflight in three astronauts.…”

m6A Methylation Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes in Skin Tissues of Coarse and Fine Type Liaoning Cashmere Goats

“…There were 13 differentially expressed genes were enriched in MAPK signaling pathway. It has been reported that the MAPK signaling pathway may be related to hair color formation (Schellenberger et al, 2011). MAPK signaling pathway plays an important role in regulating hair cycle and self-renewal of hair follicle stem cells (Akilli Öztürk et al, 2015).…”

Profiling mRNA of the Graying Human Hair Follicle Constitutes a Promising State-of-the-Art Tool to Assess Its Aging: An Exemplary Report

“…To date, transcriptional profiling of HF cells has been conducted in mice and rats, effectively revealing known and new receptors and the signaling pathways involved in the maintenance of murine HF stem cells (Morris et al, 2004;Tumbar et al, 2004;Ishimatsu-Tsuji et al, 2005;Trempus et al, 2007;Umeda-Ikawa et al, 2009). Microarray studies that use human HFs have so far focused on fossile mRNA (Tochio et al, 2011), compared HF fibroblast populations (Goodarzi et al, 2010;Ariza de Schellenberger et al, 2011), and plugged incomplete HFs (Kim et al, 2006) or HFs exposed to ex vivo pharmacological experiments (Gaspar et al, 2010). Here we provide an intra-individual comparison using native microdissected HFs with melanocytes as indicators of biological age.…”