Investigating the Functions of Vangl2 in Patterning and Regeneration of the Adult Epidermis

Abstract

Planar cell polarity (PCP) allows the polarization of epithelial cells collectively along the epithelial plane in the skin. Mutations in proteins involved in the PCP pathway often result in embryonic lethality due to neural tube defects, one of the most common life-threatening congenital defects. As a result of this early death, the role that PCP proteins play in postnatal mice has been largely limited to the few genotypes that can survive past gestation. We have bred viable postnatal conditional knockout (CKO) mice for Vang-like2 (Vangl2) in cells with the keratin-14 promoter using Cre/LoxP technology to study the effects of the Vangl2 deletion in the adult epidermis. These mice have allowed us to conclude that a variety of postnatal functions are affected in Vangl2 CKOs such as a loss of global hair follicle polarization and their associated structures along the anterior-posterior (AP) axis as well as more rapid regeneration of hair follicles.