Signaling couples hair follicle stem cell quiescence with reduced histone H3K4/K9/K27me3 for proper tissue homeostasis

Mechanisms of plasticity to acquire different cell fates are critical for adult stem cell (SC) potential, yet are poorly understood. Reduced global histone methylation is an epigenetic state known to mediate plasticity in cultured embryonic SCs and T cell progenitors. We used mouse hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) at two different hair cycle stages (early anagen and late catagen) to compare the genome-wide changes in the levels of histone modification marks H3K4me3, H3K9me3, and H3K27me3. Overall design: Hair follicle stem cells from Early Anagen (EA-HFSCs) and Late Catagen (LC-HFSCs), and their non-HFSCs counterparts (nEA-HFSCs and nLC-HFSCs), were FACS-isolated for Chromatin Immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-seq) analysis of H3K4me3, H3K9me3, and H3K27me3.