2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Molecular Profiling of Melanocyte Stem Cells
| Project/Area Number |
14580719
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Developmental biology
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| Research Institution | RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) |
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Principal Investigator |
OSAWA Masatake RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research), Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, Research Scientist, 幹細胞研究グループ, 研究員 (10344029)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2003
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| Keywords | Stem Cells / Melanocytes / Gene Expression Analysis / Stem Cell Niche |
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| Research Abstract |
Stem cells are defined as cells that have the dual capacity to generate mature cells through differentiation and to maintain themselves through self-renewal. The differentiation and self-renewal of stem cells are tightly controlled by their particular microenvironment referred to as a niche. Despite extensive studies of stem cells, the molecular mechanisms underlying stem cell regulation by the niche are still largely unknown because of the difficulties of identifying individual stem cells and defining their niche in the tissue. To overcome these difficulties, we employed the melanocyte regeneration system in the mouse hair follicle. By utilizing Dct-LacZ transgenic mice that can mark all the differentiation stages of melanocytes in the hair follicle, we identified that melanocyte stem cells, that can give rise to differentiated melanocytes as well as repopulate the melanocyte system after transplantation, are located in the bulge region of the hair follicle. To explore the molecular mechanism of the stem cell regulation by the niche, we isolated the stem cells and their associating cells from the single hair follicles dissected from dorsal skin of Dct-GFP transgenic mice and determined their transcriptional profile by performing subtractive cDNA hybridization. We have identified >500 stem. cell genes and >300 niche cell genes which are preferentially expressed in the stem cells and niche-like cells respectively. Some of these genes encode surface receptors and secreted proteins enabling the stem cells to regulate and signal to their microenvironment. These results would help to understand the exact molecular interactions between the stem cells and their niche to regulate stem cell capacity.
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