BMPR1A signaling is necessary for hair follicle cycling and hair shaft differentiation in mice.

Interactions between ectodermal and mesenchymal extracellular signaling pathways regulate hair follicle (HF) morphogenesis and hair cycling. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are known to be important in hair follicle development by affecting the local cell fate modulation. To study the role of BMP signaling in the HF, we disrupted Bmpr1a, which encodes the BMP receptor type IA (BMPR1A) in an HF cell-specific manner, using the Cre/loxP system. We found that the differentiation of inner root sheath, but not outer root sheath, was severely impaired in mutant mice. The number of HFs was reduced in the dermis and subcutaneous tissue, and cycling epithelial cells were reduced in mutant mice HFs. Our results strongly suggest that BMPR1A signaling is essential for inner root sheath differentiation and is indispensable for HF renewal in adult skin.