Figure 3.

A: Increased vulnerability of hair follicle toward an advanced catagen progression was detectable in stressed mice, compared to non-stressed control. This stress-induced premature onset of catagen could be abrogated by neutralizing NGF. Hair cycle score (HCS) was assessed as previously published in 39,40. Briefly, the y-axis depicts the mean ± 1 SEM of histometric score, assessed on day 16 after anagen induction. For every mouse a minimum of 100 individual hair follicles was assigned to distinct hair cycle stages. On the right of the graph, representative hair cycle stages for each HCS are depicted, ie, anagen VI is the dominant hair cycle stage with a score of 0.5. ***, P < 0.001. B: More detailed description of distinct hair cycle stages in stressed and stressed, anti-NGF-treated mice, to visualize more clearly the redistribution of the majority of hair follicle from catagen II toward anagen VI on anti-NGF treatment in stressed mice.