UC Irvine

Wound induced hair follicle neogenesis (WIHN) describes a regenerative phenomenon in adult mammalian skin, wherein fully functional hair follicles regenerate de novo in the center of large excisional wounds. Originally described in rats, rabbits, sheep, and humans in 1940-60, the WIHN phenomenon was reinvestigated in mice only recently. The process of de novo hair regeneration largely duplicates the morphological and signaling features of normal embryonic hair development. Similar to hair development, WIHN critically depends on the activation of canonical WNT signaling. However, unlike hair development, WNT activation in WIHN is dependent on Fgf9 signaling generated by the immune system's gamma delta (γδ) T cells. The cellular bases of WIHN remain to be fully characterized, however, the available evidence leaves open the possibility for a blastema-like mechanism, wherein epidermal and/or dermal wound cells undergo epigenetic reprogramming toward a more plastic, embryonic-like state. De novo hair follicles do not regenerate from preexisting hair-fated bulge stem cells. This suggests that hair neogenesis is not driven by preexisting lineage-restricted progenitors, as is the case for amputation-induced mouse digit tip regeneration, but rather may require a blastema-like mechanism. The WIHN model is characterized by several intriguing features, which await further explanation. These include: (i) minimum wound size requirement for activating neogenesis, (ii) restriction of hair neogenesis to the wound's center, (iii) imperfect patterning outcomes, both in terms of neogenic hair positioning within the wound and in terms of their orientation. Future inquires into the WIHN process, made possible by a wide array of the available skin-specific genetic tools, will undoubtedly expand our understanding of the regeneration mechanisms in adult mammals.