Isolation and Identification of Goat Dermal Papilla Cells and Expression of TGF/β-smad Pathway Related Genes

The purpose of this study was to isolate goat hair follicle cells,and to explore the expression of TGF-β/smad pathway-related genes,providing a good model for the research on the mechanism of goat hair follicle development in vitro.In this study,two steps of neutral protease and collagenase digestion were used to treat the skin on the back of goats,the hair follicle cells were isolated and purified under stereomicroscope.Cellular immunofluorescence and Western blotting method were used to verify the expression of α-SMA (α-smooth muscle actin,α-SMA) and VIM (vimentin,VIM),and the expression of related genes of the TGF-β/smad pathway in goat hair papilla cells were examined.The results showed that the isolated goat hair follicle cells in adherent culture after separation grew slowly and had mature morphology after 15 days of separation and could be subcultured.The results of immunofluorescence and Western blotting showed that both α-SMA and VIM were positive in vitro cultured hair papilla cells.The expression of smad4 and smad5 genes in the TGF-β/smad pathway were significantly higher than those in control group (P<0.05),and the expression of smad2,smad6,and smad7 were extremely significantly higher than those in control group (P<0.01).These key genes related to hair follicle development were highly expressed.This study successfully isolated goat dermal papilla cells,which would give a good theoretical basis and cell model for studying the hair follicle development mechanism in vitro.