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The effects of environmental factors on hair follicle stem cell

Description: By using mouse skin as a model, I investigated how environmental factors, especially obesity, affect the maintenance of skin homeostasis. It was known that the number of hair follicles in mice decreases with age, as in humans. Here I showed that hair loss is accelerated in an obese mice. The direct cause of hair loss is the conversion of hair follicle stem cells to epidermal keratinocytes. As for changes in internal factors, obesity causes activation of IL1R signaling and lipid accumulation in hair follicle stem cells, which in turn leads to inactivation of SHH signaling, which is essential for the maintenance of hair follicle stem cells. This study has revealed the entire process of hair loss from the systemic changes of obesity.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Amount: ¥4,160,000

Funding type: fellowship

Funder scheme: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)

Start date: 2017-04-01

End date: 2021-03-31

Investigator: Hironobu Morinaga

Institution: Tokyo Medical and Dental University

Topic: Hair Growth and Disorders

Subfield: Urology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences