Investigation of Transcriptional Gene Profiling in Normal Murine Hair Follicular Substructures Using Next-Generation Sequencing to Provide Potential Insights into Skin Disease

Abstract

Skin diseases, including hair-related diseases and neoplasia, are a major public health problem. While their prevalence is increasing, their treatment options are limited. Researchers have tried to investigate the genes and signal pathways underlying hair follicles (HFs) to develop genetically targeted therapies through microarrays, which represent an appropriate modality for the analysis of small genomes. To enable the comprehensive transcriptome analysis of large and/or complex transcriptomes, we performed RNA-seq using next-generation sequencing (NGS). We isolated interfollicular keratinocytes (IFKs), HFs, and dermal fibroblasts including dermal papilla cells (DFs- DPCs ) from normal C57BL/6 murine skin, transplanted combinations of these samples into nude mice, and followed the mice over time. Sustained hair growth was supported by HFs and DFs- DPCs . We then investigated the pathways and the relevant gene ontology associated with any identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs). In addition, in the culture and flow cytometry (FCM), the HFs had a more quiescent cell cycle pattern than did the IFKs and DFs- DPCs . Therefore, the representative cell cycle-related gene expression of IFKs, HFs, and DFs- DPCs was analyzed by NGS. Our study will allow researchers to further investigate the potential interactions and signaling pathways that are active in HF-related diseases and cancer and may aid in future bioengineering applications.