571 Human Hair Follicles can “Taste”: Stimulation of the Bitter Taste Receptor TAS2R4 Inhibits Hair Growth Ex Vivo by Up-Regulating TGF-β2

Abstract

Besides taste buds, several other tissues express taste receptors (TR), where these exert various non-gustatory functions, e.g. in immunity, metabolism, endocrinology and/or reproduction. Human skin expresses the bitter TR, TAS2R4, whose functions in skin biology remain unknown. Since we show here that the epithelium of human scalp hair follicles (HFs) prominently and hair cycle-dependently expresses functional TAS2R4, we have explored these human chemosensory (mini-)organs as accessible model systems to dissect non-classical TR functions in human tissue physiology.