Identification of Keratin 5 expression lineage fibroblasts in hair follicles

We investigated epidermis derived fibroblasts in neonatal skin at single cell-transcriptomic levels. We found that keratin 5 lineage mesenchymal cells mainly showed the transcriptomic signatures as dermal papilla and dermal sheath cells. Our data suggested that hair follicle dermal cells were originally derived from epidermis via epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Overall design: Neonatal skins from head, back and abdomen of Krt5-Cre; R26-stop-tdTomato; Pdgfra-H2B-eGFP mice were hervested. Each specimens were dissociated enzymatically, and then the cell suspensions were sorted by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) according to eGFP+ and tdTomato+/-. The sorted cells were analyzed using single cell RNA sequencing.