Gene expression in rat dermal papilla cells: Analysis of 2529 ESTs

Dermal papilla (DEPA) cells are resident at the base of hair follicles and are fundamental to hair growth and development. Cultured DEPA cells, in con trast to normal fibroblast cells, are capable of inducing de novo hair foll icle growth in vivo. By differential screening of a DEPA cDNA library, we h ave demonstrated that dermal papilla cells are different from fibroblasts a t the molecular level. We further studied these cells by random sequencing of 5130 clones from the DEPA cDNA library. Fifty percent had a BLASTX E val ue less than or equal to1 x 10(-25). Twenty-one percent had similarity to p roteins involved in cell structure/motility with 4 of the top 10 most abund ant clones encoding extracellular matrix proteins. Clones encoding growth f actor molecules were also abundant. The remaining 50.7% of clones had low s imilarity scores, demonstrating many novel molecules. For example, we ident ified a new CTGF family member, the rat homologue of Elm1. (C) 2000 Academi c Press.