Expression of Anti-Aging Type-XVII Collagen (COL17A1/BP180) in Hair Follicle-Associated Pluripotent (HAP) Stem Cells During Differentiation

    June 2019 in “ Tissue & Cell ”
    Kyoumi Shirai, Koya Obara, Natsuko Tohgi, Aiko Yamazaki, Ryoichi Aki, Yuko Hamada, Nobuko Arakawa, Shree Ram Singh, Robert M. Hoffman, Yasuyuki Amoh
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    TLDR Hair stem cells produce a protein called COL17A1 that plays a key role in their development and is linked to hair thinning and baldness.
    The 2019 study demonstrated that hair-follicle-associated pluripotent (HAP) stem cells, which reside in the upper part of the hair follicle, co-express nestin and type-XVII collagen (COL17A1). The expression of HAP stem cell markers (nestin and SSEA1) increased after HAP stem-cell colonies were formed, then decreased after differentiation to epidermal keratinocytes. In contrast, COL17A1 increased after differentiation to epidermal keratinocytes. This suggests that COL17A1 plays a significant role in the differentiation of HAP stem cells. The study also noted that the DNA-damage response in non-HAP hair follicle stem cells induces proteolysis of COL17A1, which is involved in hair-follicle stem-cell maintenance and is associated with hair-follicle miniaturization and androgenic alopecia.
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