Abstract
Alopecia is a common problem that affects almost every age group and is considered to be an issue for cosmetic or psychiatric reasons. The loss of hair follicles (HFs) and hair caused by alopecia impairs self-esteem, thermoregulation, tactile sensation and protection from ultraviolet light. One strategy to solve this problem is HF regeneration. Many signalling pathways and molecules participate in the morphology and regeneration of HF, such as Wnt/β-catenin, Sonic hedgehog, bone morphogenetic protein and Notch. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), especially microRNAs and long ncRNAs, have significant modulatory roles in HF development and regeneration via regulation of these signalling pathways. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the status and future prospects of ncRNAs in HF regeneration and could prompt novel ncRNA-based therapeutic strategies.
Highlights
Hair follicles (HFs), which protrude from mammalian skin and are considered to be mini-organs, are formed via epidermis–dermis interactions in the embryo (Schmidt-Ullrich and Paus, 2005)
Hair loss, which is caused by many factors, is far from being cured due to its complex mechanisms
Non-coding RNAs are regulatory biomolecules that account for a large proportion of the human genome, despite not encoding proteins
Summary
Hair follicles (HFs), which protrude from mammalian skin and are considered to be mini-organs, are formed via epidermis–dermis interactions in the embryo (Schmidt-Ullrich and Paus, 2005). Among Caucasians, the morbidity rate for androgenetic alopecia is roughly 45% (Norwood, 1975; Gan and Sinclair, 2005), while in China, the rates are 21.3% and 6% for males and females, respectively (Xu et al, 2009; Wang et al, 2010). This indicates that hair loss is a serious problem. Accumulating evidence indicates that several ncRNAs are associated with the development and regeneration of HFs (Lin et al, 2014; Jiao et al, 2019; Ma et al, 2019). The distribution, quantity and texture of hair are primarily driven by sex hormones
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