A correlation between versican and neurofilament expression patterns during the development and adult cycling of rat vibrissa follicles

Versican, a proteoglycan recently implicated in hair follicle induction. ha s been shown to influence axon outgrowth in vitro and in vivo. We used immu nohistochemistry to study the relationship between versican expression and innervation, during rat vibrissa follicle development and the adult hair cy cle. During development. nerve fibres were commonly associated with areas o f weak versican expression, and the path of axons appeared to be delineated by sharp boundaries of versican expression. Versican expression changed in the lower follicle dermis during the adult hair follicle cycle but remaine d strong around the follicle neck reflecting the constant innervation. Our observations show a correlation between versican expression and peripheral innervation indicating that versican may have a dual role in hair follicle biology. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.