Hair follicles provide the stem cells for the skin's entire...( because these cells and their progeny ...)

because these cells and their progeny are located near the skin's surface within easy reach of chemical carcinogens. And this new concept may also provide new therapeutic approaches to a variety of epidermal skin diseases, such as psoriasis, which may involve epithelial stem cells."

In the new study, the researchers figured out how to identify the stem cells in the bulge by tagging them with two chemicals. One bestows a red glow to the nuclei of these cells, and the other emits a specific radioactive signature. The technique relies on the fact that these stem cells take a relatively long time to go through the cell cycle, the process by which a cell divides. In a series of experiments involving three-day-old mice and adult mice, the researchers found that after a certain amount of time, the labeled cells had decreased in the upper follicle and increased dramatically in the epidermis.

Dr. Sun and Dr. Lavker have enjoyed a working partnership that extends over two decades. They are especially known for their discoveries of stem cells residing in various organs of the body. In the 1980s, for example, they found that the stem cells for the cornea resided in an area called the limbus on the cornea's periphery. The discovery led to a new surgical technique called "limbal stem-cell transplantation," in which a piece of the limbus from the patient's good eye or from that of a related donor is used to restore eye sight in patients suffering severe corneal damage.

In 1990 Dr. Sun and Dr. Lavker made another stem-cell discovery. Researchers had assumed that the hair's stem cells lurked in the bottom of the follicle in a structure called the "bulb." But Dr. Sun and Dr. Lavker found the stem cells in the bulge, which is located in the upper part of the hair follicle. The discovery changed the understanding of hair growth. In the new scenario, stem cells migrate to the bulb, where they interact with a region called the "dermal pa
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Contact: Marjorie Shaffer
Marjorie.Shaffer@med.nyu.edu
212-404-3555
New York University Medical Center and School of Medicine
16-Aug-2000

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