Wnt-responsive mesenchymal cells in dorsal back skin and ventral foot skin

Canonical WNT-signaling is essential for placode formation irrespective of appendage type. At sites of placode initiation, Although WNT-signaling occurs in both epithelium and mesenchyme, the site of most intense activity as revealed by the WNT reporter Axin2-LacZ was in a zone just below the epithelial-mesenchymal interface. In ventral foot-skin, this WNT activity peaked at E17.5, concomitant with sweat bud fate commitment, while in dorsal back-skin, it began at E14.5, concomitant with HF fate specification. Overall design: To address whether WNT-signaling within this zone might regionally influence the transcriptional landscape of body-site mesenchymes to support distinct epithelial fates, we transcriptionally profiled the Axin2-positive and Axin2-negative dermal cells following their FACS-purification from E17.5 ventral foot-skin and E14.5 dorsal back-skin

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Lu CP, Polak L, Keyes BE, Fuchs E