Deficiency of Crif1 in hair follicle stem cells retards hair growth cycle in adult mice

PLoS One. 2020 Apr 24;15(4):e0232206. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232206. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Hair growth is the cyclically regulated process that is characterized by growing phase (anagen), regression phase (catagen) and resting phase (telogen). Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) play pivotal role in the control of hair growth cycle. It has been notified that stem cells have the distinguished metabolic signature compared to differentiated cells, such as the preference to glycolysis rather than mitochondrial respiration. Crif1 is a mitochondrial protein that regulates the synthesis and insertion of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) polypeptides to inner membrane of mitochondria. Several studies demonstrate that tissue-specific knockout of Crif1 leads to mitochondrial dysfunction. In this study, we investigated the effect of mitochondrial dysfunction in terms of Crif1 deficiency on the hair growth cycle of adult mice. We created two kinds of inducible conditional knockout (icKO) mice. In epidermal specific icKO mice (Crif1 K14icKO), hair growth cycle was significantly retarded compared to wild type mice. Similarly, HFSC specific icKO mice (Crif1 K15icKO) showed significant retardation of hair growth cycle in depilation-induced anagen model. Interestingly, flow cytometry revealed that HFSC populations were maintained in Crif1 K15icKO mice. These results suggest that mitochondrial function in HFSCs is important for the progression of hair growth cycle, but not for maintenance of HFSCs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / metabolism*
  • Cell Differentiation / physiology
  • Epidermis / growth & development
  • Epidermis / metabolism
  • Hair / growth & development*
  • Hair / metabolism*
  • Hair Follicle / growth & development*
  • Hair Follicle / metabolism*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Mitochondria / metabolism
  • Mitochondrial Proteins / metabolism
  • Oxidative Phosphorylation
  • Peptides / metabolism
  • Stem Cells / metabolism

Substances

  • Cell Cycle Proteins
  • Crif1 protein, mouse
  • Mitochondrial Proteins
  • Peptides

Grants and funding

This study was supported by a grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017R1A2B4008810). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.