Secreted Frizzled-related protein 4 inhibits the regeneration of hair follicles

• Published in: PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) Vol. 6; p. e6153
• Main Authors: Guo, Haiying, Xing, Yizhan, Deng, Fang, Yang, Ke, Li, Yuhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States PeerJ. Ltd 04.01.2019; PeerJ, Inc; PeerJ Inc
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Cell adhesion & migration; Cell Biology; Cell growth; Dermatology; Follicles; Frizzled-related protein; Gene expression; Hair; Hair follicle; Hair follicles; Keratin; Laboratory animals; Medical research; Melanocytes; Ovarian cancer; Proteins; Psoriasis; sFRP4; Skin; Stem cells; Wnt protein; Wnt signaling pathway; China; Keratin; Hair follicle; Wnt signaling pathway; sFRP4
• ISSN: 2167-8359; 2167-8359
• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.6153

Secreted Frizzled-related Protein 4 (sFRP4) belongs to Wnt inhibitors. Previously, we reported that sFRP4 inhibited the differentiation of melanocyte. Here, by using of immunostaining, we showed that sFRP4 is expressed in both human and mouse hair follicles, especially in the outer root sheath and inner root sheath. To reveal the role of sFRP4 in hair follicle growth and hair cycle, we induced synchronized hair cycle in the dorsal skin of mice by depilation, and injected sFRP4 intradermally into the skin. By hematoxylin and eosin staining, we found that the regeneration of hair follicles was inhibited by sFRP4. However, the structure of hair follicles remained complete. Compared with phosphate buffer saline-treated hair follicles, the sFRP4-treated hair follicles still had the same expression pattern of keratins. Our findings reveal that sFRP4 inhibits but not blocks the regeneration of hair follicles, and supply a potential therapeutic application to treat hair follicle regeneration disorders.