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RET tyrosine kinase enhances hair growth in association with promotion of melanogenesis

Oncogene volume 20, pages 7536–7541 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

We first demonstrated that c-Ret protein is transiently expressed mainly in the inner and outer root sheaths of hair follicles soon after birth in the skin of normal C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice. A longer-lasting expression of activated RET protein overlapped the c-Ret expression with some preferential expression in the outer root sheath in close association with increase in the number of S-100 protein-containing cells in the area and excess melanogenesis in and around hair bulbs in the skin of RFP-RET-transgenic mice on a C57BL/6 background (RFP-RET/B6). Hair follicles in the skin of the transgenic mice continuously showed histology of the anagen phase, and the recovery period for the hair of the transgenic mice after shaving was shortened. Such growth promotion was not observed in the case of white hairs of RFP-RET-transgenic mice on a BALB/c background. These results suggest that RET works to extend the anagen phase in association with upregulation of melanin production.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Y Kato, K Ban, Y Umeda, H Saeki and K Uchiyama for their technical assistance. This study was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for COE Research, for Scientific Research on Priority Areas and for Scientific Research (C) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan, the Fund for Comprehensive Research on Aging and Health from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Lydia O'leary Memorial Foundation, the research fund of the Institute of Kampo Medicine and the Aichi Cancer Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Department of Immunology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, 466-8550, Japan

    Masashi Kato, Kozue Takeda, Yoshiyuki Kawamoto, Toyonori Tsuzuki, Yan Dai & Izumi Nakashima

  2. Department of Pathology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, 466-8550, Japan

    Seiko Nakayama & Masahide Takahashi

  3. Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, 466-8550, Japan

    Kazuhiro Toriyama

  4. Department of Dermatology, Aichi Medical University, Nagakute-cho, 480-11, Aichi, Japan

    Yasuhiko Tamada

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  1. Masashi Kato
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  2. Kozue Takeda
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Correspondence to Izumi Nakashima.

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Kato, M., Takeda, K., Kawamoto, Y. et al. RET tyrosine kinase enhances hair growth in association with promotion of melanogenesis. Oncogene 20, 7536–7541 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1204918

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