Expression of 'Blimp1' gene leads to the discovery of cells responsible for skin's sebaceous gland

Mice may not get zits, but they do have oily skin. This week, new research on mice from Rockefeller University shows how the cells responsible for oil production develop, and uncovers clues about how stem cells renew and differentiate.

Oil industry. Cells which form the sebaceous gland (green bulge), and are linked to the hair follicle, secrete oil to help lubricate and waterproof the skin. Elaine Fuchs’s lab discovered that a small population of cells adjacent to the gland express the Blimp1 protein (red) and act as progenitor cells, generating all of the cells the gland needs to function.

The research focuses on the skin’s sebaceous gland, which is linked to the hair shaft and secretes an oily mixture called sebum. But until today how the sebaceous gland is formed during development was a matter of debate: one group of scientists proposed that skin stem cells produce the gland and a second group suggested that it had its own progenitor cells. In new research, published in this month’s issue of Cell, Rockefeller’s Elaine Fuchs settles this argument, showing that at the site where the sebaceous gland adjoins the hair follicle, a unique population of cells exists whose sole job is to make, and maintain, the sebaceous gland.

“We were exploring the expression of a transcription factor called Blimp1, which had surfaced in a genetic screen that we had conducted,” explains Fuchs. “We were surprised to find that Blimp1 was expressed in a small population of cells within the sebaceous gland. We knew these cells were skin keratinocytes but no one had ever described their existence and therefore, we had no clues about their relationship to the gland.”

Valerie Horsley, a postdoc in the Fuchs lab and first author of the paper, had been interested in Blimp1’s role in hair follicle development, and had engineered mice that were missing the Blimp1 gene in their skin. “When the mice were born, they formed normal hair follicles, which was quite disappointing,” says Horsley. “But when they were around one month of age I noticed that the mice started getting very oily skin.”

The sebaceous glands in mice missing Blimp1 were much larger than in normal skin. This happens in another genetically altered mouse, one overexpressing the c-myc gene, which has been implicated in many different kinds of cancers. Horsley found that Blimp1 usually acts to repress c-myc expression, and in mice without Blimp1, c-mycexpression was increased, causing the sebaceous gland to contain cells that divide more frequently. When Horsley tagged the Blimp1 positive cells and tracked them, she found that the daughters of the Blimp1 cells contribute to the entire gland. Also, when grown outside in culture, the cells that make Blimp1 can divide and self-renew, as well as make the cell types important for generating the oils of the sebaceous gland.

“The data show clearly that these cells are the progenitors for the entire sebaceous gland,” says Horsley. “And Blimp1 is somehow controlling this progenitor population, regulating how many cells are allowed into the gland. This is the first molecular characterization of these cells.”

“This study has implications for understanding sebaceous gland disorders ranging from acne to sebaceous cell cancers,” says Fuchs. “And it not only gives us a handle on these novel resident stem cells, but also clues to how stem cells can control the balance of proliferation and differentiation in tissues.”