Extended Data Fig. 2: Corticosterone restores normal hair cycle progression in ADX mice.
From: Corticosterone inhibits GAS6 to govern hair follicle stem-cell quiescence
a, H&E staining of the skin of 21-month-old sham and ADX mice. b, Morphology of each hair subtype from the skin of 18-month-old sham and ADX mice. c, Left, immunohistochemical analyses (CD34 and PCAD) of telogen hair follicles in the skin of sham and ADX mice at 22 months old, showing normal hair follicle morphology and comparable stem-cell numbers. Middle, quantification of the number of bulge and hair germ cells per HF. Right, the percentage of HFSCs in epithelial fraction by FACS. d, Hormones from the adrenal gland and plasma levels of corticosterone in P45 sham and ADX mice. e, Plasma levels of noradrenaline and adrenaline measured by LC–MS/MS at P45 (10 days after surgery) in sham and ADX mice. f, Left, experimental design to test if supplying corticosterone rescues ADX phenotypes. Right, hair cycle progression of sham mice fed with vehicle (sham+veh) or ADX mice fed with corticosterone (ADX+CORT). g, Plasma corticosterone levels at P62 in C57BL/6 mice after a week’s feeding with vehicle or corticosterone. h, Top, experimental design for 3 days of corticosterone feeding. Bottom, the percentage of hair regrowth of the back skin at P38. i, Hair cycle progression of C57BL/6 male mice fed with vehicle or corticosterone. Corticosterone feeding prolonged telogen as long as corticosterone was provided to the mice (both male and female). j, Body weight of C57BL/6 mice fed with vehicle or corticosterone from P83 to P118. k, Left, H&E staining in the skin of vehicle and corticosterone-fed mice. Middle and right, quantification of the thickness of dermis (middle) and dermal adipose layer (right). D, dermis; A, adipose layer. l, Immunohistochemical analysis (active caspase 3 (aCAS3) and PCAD) in vehicle- and corticosterone-fed mice. Dashed lines, epidermis and hair follicles. m, Left, experimental design to test the effect of corticosterone withdrawal. Right, hair cycle progression of C57BL/6 mice after completion of 3 weeks of vehicle or corticosterone feeding. Scale bars (a, b, c, k, l), 50 μm. Data are mean ± s.e.m. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, NS, not significant. For exact P values, see Source Data. For statistics, sample sizes and numbers of replications, see Methods.
