Description
Mouse hair follicles (HFs) undergo synchronized cycles. Cyclical regeneration and hair growth is fueled by stem cells (SCs). During the rest phase, the HF-SCs remain quiescent due to extrinsic inhibitory signals within the niche. As activating cues accumulate, HF-SCs become activated, proliferate, and grow downward to form transient-amplifying matrix progenitor cells. We used microarrays to detect the relative levels of global gene expression underlying the states of hair follicle stem cells and their transient-amplifying progeny before differentiation.