Nature Communications (Jun 2018)

FGF signalling controls the specification of hair placode-derived SOX9 positive progenitors to Merkel cells

  • Minh Binh Nguyen,
  • Idan Cohen,
  • Vinod Kumar,
  • Zijian Xu,
  • Carmit Bar,
  • Katherine L. Dauber-Decker,
  • Pai-Chi Tsai,
  • Pauline Marangoni,
  • Ophir D. Klein,
  • Ya-Chieh Hsu,
  • Ting Chen,
  • Marja L. Mikkola,
  • Elena Ezhkova

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04399-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Merkel cells are mechanoreceptors located in the epidermis whose developmental origin is unclear. Here the authors show that Merkel cells originate from SOX9 positive cells inside hair follicles and that FGFR2-mediated epithelial signalling is required for their specification.