Murine dorsal hair type is genetically determined by polymorphisms in candidate genes that influence BMP and WNT signalling.

Mouse dorsal coat hair types, guard, awl, auchene and zigzag, develop in three consecutive waves. To date, it is unclear if these hair types are determined genetically through expression of specific factors or can change based on their mesenchymal environment. We undertook a novel approach to this question by studying individual hair type in 67 Collaborative Cross (CC) mouse lines and found significant variation in the proportion of each type between strains.

Accelerated Endothelial to Mesenchymal Transition Increased Fibrosis via Deleting Notch Signaling in Wound Vasculature.

Skin wound healing in adults is characterized by a peak of angiogenesis followed by regression of the excessive vasculature in parallel with collagen deposition and fibrosis in the wound. We hypothesized that regressing vessels in healing wounds were in fact entering an endothelial to mesenchymal transition contributing to scarring. Using vascular-specific fate tracking (Cdh5-cre/ROSA-YFP mice), full-thickness excisional wounds were analyzed to reveal a time-dependent transition from endothelial phenotype characterized by vascular endothelial-cadherin, CD31, and CD34 toward a mesenchymal phenotype characterized by alpha-smooth muscle actin and fibroblast-specific protein 1 expression.