Specific Targeting of Dermal Papilla Cells With Hhip-Cre

This study investigates the use of Hhip-Cre as a specific driver for targeting dermal papilla (DP) cells, which are crucial for hair follicle formation and regeneration. By crossing Hhip-IRES-CreERT2 (Hhip-Cre) mice with ROSA26-LacZ and ROSA26-tdTomato reporter mice, researchers found that Cre activity was present in the majority of anagen hair follicles when induced by tamoxifen during the first hair cycle or after depilation. The results suggest that Hhip-Cre is an effective tool for gene manipulation in DP cells, providing a valuable method for studying the functions of these cells in hair biology.