HORMONES AND HAIR-GROWTH - VARIATIONS IN ANDROGEN RECEPTOR CONTENT OFDERMAL PAPILLA CELLS CULTURED FROM HUMAN AND RED DEER (CERVUS-ELAPHUS) HAIR-FOLLICLES

Many hair follicles produce different types of hair in response to env ironmental changes or the mammals age, that are translated to the foll icle by hormones. Androgens cause many changes, such as transforming v ellus follicles producing insignificant hairs on the face to terminal beard ones at puberty or the reverse on the scalp. In male red deer th e breeding season rise in androgens causes the annual production of a mane on the neck that is lost during the spring.Because the dermal pap illa situated at the base of the hair follicle is important in determi ning the type of hair produced, androgens may act via the dermal papil la. Therefore, primary cell lines of dermal papilla cells from human a nd red deer follicles with different responses to androgens have been established. Specific saturable androgen receptors were present in all human papilla cells examined, with higher levels in cells from androg en-dependent follicles, e.g., beard than in control, non-balding scalp cells. In preliminary investigations of red deer, androgen receptors were only present in cells derived from mane follicles and were undete ctable in flank or spring neck follicles. These similar results from b oth species support the hypothesis that androgens are acting on hair f ollicles via the dermal papilla. They also suggest that dermal papilla cells are potentially useful models for investigating the mechanism o f androgen action because cultured cells appear to retain differences that relate to the androgen responsiveness of their parent follicle. T he red deer seems particularly interesting in view of the much shorter hair-growth cycle than human scalp or beard follicles.