Hair From a Cut

freeman submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Desperate bald people shouldn't try this at home, but researchers have found that mice will regrow hair, not just skin, after a flesh wound. The discovery dashes the dogma that adult mammals cannot produce new hair follicles, and it suggests ways of improving skin grafts and reversing hair loss.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: hair hair follicle

First demonstration of new hair follicle generation in an animal model

athena submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.biologynews.net)

"Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos. These findings provide unequivocal evidence for the first time that, like other animals such as newts and salamanders, mammals have the power to regenerate. These findings are published in the May 17 issue of Nature. "

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: hair follicle animal model re-awakening genes

Wnt/β-catenin signaling in cancer stemness and malignant behavior

athena submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.sciencedirect.com)

"Stem cells are defined by their intrinsic capacity to self-renew and differentiate. Cancer stem cells retain both these features but have lost homeostatic mechanisms which maintain normal cell numbers. The canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays a central role in modulating the delicate balance between stemness and differentiation in several adult stem cell niches such as the hair follicles in the skin, the mammary gland, and the intestinal crypt

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: stem cell homeostatic mechanism hair follicle mammary gland

Melanomas require HEDGEHOG-GLI signaling regulated by interactions between GLI1 and the RAS-MEK/AKT pathways

cappuccion submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.pnas.org)

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive cancers, and its incidence is increasing. These tumors derive from the melanocyte lineage and remain incurable after metastasis. Here we report that SONIC HEDGEHOG (SHH)-GLI signaling is active in the matrix of human hair follicles, and that it is required for the normal proliferation of human melanocytes in culture. SHH-GLI signaling also regulates the proliferation and survival of human melanomas: the growth, recurrence, and metastasis of melanoma xenografts in mice are prevented by local or systemic interference of HH-GLI function

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: cancer melanocyte hair follicle metastasis skin