Hair Follicle Dermal Cells Support Expansion of Murine and Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and Promote Haematopoiesis in Mouse Cultures

Figure 2

Dermal cells provide support for mESCs via soluble factors. mESCs were cultured in complete mESC medium (a), ESC differentiation medium (b), and DP/mESC coculture conditioned medium (c) for 10 days. Cultures maintained in conditioned medium showed maintenance of typical mESC colony morphology and behaviour. (d) Cytokines known to be involved in mESC maintenance are expressed by follicular DP, DS, and BMSC. (e) Several of these cytokines are also expressed in different regions of vibrissa follicles as detected by PCR. However, the localization of LIF (f), CNTF (g), and gp130 (h) by immunohistochemistry (pink staining) in the lower follicle bulb region shows that they are predominantly in the follicle epithelium. (i) gp130 is also expressed in the upper follicle (i) specifically in the bulge epithelium (i) (region delineated by a yellow rectangle) (CL: club hair; GH: growing hair). Scale bars (a–i) = 100 μm and (i) = 50 μm.