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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Dec 14.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Genet. 2009 Aug 30;41(10):1068–1075. doi: 10.1038/ng.431

Figure 5.

Figure 5

Measuring the stem cell potential within hair follicles and epidermis in the absence of Tcf3 and Tcf4. (a) Hair follicles in Tcf3/4-null dermis seem to lack the potential to regenerate epidermis. After dispase treatment to remove and discard epidermis, entire wild-type or Tcf3/4-null male skin dermis (containing hair follicles) was engrafted onto female nude mice. After 30 d, control (wild-type) grafts showed Y chromosome–positive epidermal cells, whereas epidermis from Tcf3/4-null dermis was derived from nude epidermal reepithelialization. (b) Chamber graft mixing experiments with purified, single-cell suspensions of sex-marked epidermal or hair follicle cells show that, in contrast to wild type, neither Tcf3/4-null epidermal cells nor hair follicle cells contribute properly to reestablishment of skin epidermis. IFE, interfollicular epidermis, either near to or far from hair follicles. (c) Quantification of male IFE cells from split-thickness grafts. (d) Quantification of female epidermal cells in chamber grafts detected in near or far IFE. Error bars (c,d), s.d.