Gene expression profiling of the intact dermal sheath cup of human hair follicle

The dermal sheath cup is the peribulbar component of the hair follicle dermal sheath, and has hair inductive potential similar to the dermal papilla. To characterize it in comparison with other mesenchymal follicle tissuesparts, we performed gene expression profiling of intact dermal sheath cups, which were separated from hair follicles by microdissection. Gene expression profiles of the dermal sheath cup, dermal papilla and upper dermal sheath were compared. We identified a dermal sheath cup signature composed of 32 upregulated genes, which included extracellular matrix components and BMP binding mollecules, while dermal papilla signature included a number of dermal papilla signature genes which had already reported. Analyses of upstream regulators showed that TGF- b1 is a putative regulator of these genes. These results suggest some of molecular mechanism that contributes to human dermal sheath cup properties, which could be useful for hair follicle bioengineering. Gene expression profiles of the dermal sheath cup, dermal papilla and upper dermal sheath isolated from 3 individuals were compared.