LB890 Cyclic hair growth requires spatiotemporal heterogeneity in hair follicle signaling network

Abstract

Hair follicles (HFs) are cyclically growing skin mini-organs, that oscillate between small, telogen and large, anagen sizes and form hair fibers of variable length. Although cellular lineages and spatial distribution of HF cell types are largely defined, the dynamic molecular events controlling HF size and hair fiber length remain elusive. We developed a multi-scale mathematical model of HF, that permits computational testing of its growth behavior. Our model predicts that epithelial outer root sheath (ORS) cells need to develop signaling heterogeneity to one or more paracrine pathways for a HF to achieve and maintain its steady-state size in anagen and to not become excessively long, snake-like.