As an important member of the cyclooxygenase isoenzymes, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mainly catalyzes the first two steps in prostanoid synthesis. In mammalian animals, although COX-2 was thought to be rarely expressed in most normal tissues and was usually upregulated in a variety of epithelial tumors and inflammatory reactions, recently it was reported that COX-2 could localize in the epidermis ...

INTRODUCTION Recent work has focused on the hair follicle as the main repository of multipotent stem cells in skin, which is a neat model to study the mechanisms regulating the proliferation, migration and final fate of adult stem cells. This review examines the available literature for its location, molecular markers and multipotency. METHODS Peer-reviewed journals and monographs on the subj...

BACKGROUND We have previously reported that several selective protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors, including procyanidin B-2, promote hair epithelial cell growth and stimulate anagen induction. OBJECTIVES We discuss the hypothesis that the hair-growing activity of procyanidin B-2 is related to its downregulation or inhibition of translocation of PKC isozymes in hair epithelial cells. METHODS ...

During hair follicle development several cell streams are programmed to differentiate from the cell population of the follicle bulb. In the hair cells, a number of keratin gene families are transcriptionally activated. We describe the characterization of the type II keratin intermediate filament (IF) gene family which is expressed early in follicle differentiation. In sheep wool, four type II I...

To investigate the cellular basis of the action of thyroid hormone on hair follicles, we studied the immunohistochemical localization of thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) in human scalp skin using a mouse monoclonal antibody, TR alpha 1 (C4) against TRs. Immunoreactive TRs were detected in the nuclei of the outer root sheath cells (ORSCs), dermal papilla cells (DPCs), fibrous sheath cells of hair...

The tooth root is an integral, functionally important part of our dentition. The formation of a functional root depends on epithelial-mesenchymal interactions and integration of the root with the jaw bone, blood supply and nerve innervations. The root development process therefore offers an attractive model for investigating organogenesis. Understanding how roots develop and how they can be bio...