Protein maintains cross talk between cells that control hair growth

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Hair follicles cannot grow properly (bottom) when a type of skin cell called dermal papilla lacks the receptor that binds BMP a signaling molecule that when present instructs stem cells to trigger hair follicles into action and make hair (top). Credi ...
Hair follicles cannot grow properly (bottom) when a type of skin cell called dermal papilla lacks the receptor that binds BMP, a signaling molecule that, when present, instructs stem cells to trigger hair follicles into action and make hair (top). Credit: The Rockefeller University

Genes, it turns out, are only as active as the signals that turn them on and off. Now scientists from Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Institute have identified the signaling molecule that ratchets up and clamps down the activity of key genes in dermal papilla, a type of skin cell whose unique collection of proteins ultimately instruct epithelial stem cells to make hair.


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