The chemotactic effect of a dermal papilla cell-derived factor on outer root sheath cells

Abstract The effect of cultured normal human dermal papilla cells (DPCs) and conditioned medium prepared with cultured DPCs on chemotactic migration of human hair outer root sheath cells (ORSCs) was examined quantitatively. ORSCs showed significantly increased migration toward both cultured DPCs and the conditioned medium suggesting that DPCs produce and secrete a paracrine factor(s), which attracts hair follicle epithelial cells. Some soluble factors, which are reportedly produced by DPCs, such as insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF), and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), were also examined. ORSCs showed dramatically increased migration toward IGF-I and HGF at concentrations of 1–10 ng/ml. On the other hand, neither VEGF nor TGF-β1 showed any effect on the chemotaxis of ORSCs. It is interesting that all factors involving mitogenic activity did not always have chemotactic activity for ORSCs. This is the first report to establish that IGF-I and HGF have not only a growth stimulatory but also a chemotactic effect on ORSCs. In addition, the method presented here may help to simplify chemotaxis assays of any type of epithelial keratinocytes with poor mobility.