Gene expression profile of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) isolated from wild type and homozygous Dab2 cKO (Dab2 Fl/Fl) mice at postnatal day 35

Disabled 2 is an endocytic adaptor protein known to regulate various signaling pathways such Wnt , BMP, TGF and Ras/MAPK. In the present study, we observed that Dab2 is expressed in all the compartments of the hair follicle. K14 Cre specific homozygous Dab2 knockout resulted in delayed activation of HFSCs and delayed Ist hair follicle cycle initiation. At PD35, while WT progresses to anagen II, the Dab2 cKO mice still remains at telogen. In addition, loss of Dab2 alos led to reduced HFSCs pool extended quiescence, and reduced self renewal capacity of HFSCs at PD35. We performed expression profiling of HFSCs isolated from WT and Dab2 cKO mice at PD35 to check for the differentially regulated genes involved in HFSCs activation. The expression analysis helped us to elucidate the detailed molecular mechanisms involved in Dab2 mediated regulation of HFSCs activation and quiescence. To understand the detailed molecular mechanisms involved in Dab2 mediated regulation of HFSCs, we performed expression profiling on HFSCs isolated from dorsal skin sections of WT and Dab2 cKO mice at PD35.