Comparison of Structural, Cell Culture and Inductive Features of Feather and Hair Follicles Components

During embryonic development، both bird’s feather follicle and mammal’s hair follicle originate by a similar manner، the aim of this research was to access and compare histology، cell growth potential and inductive properties of papilla cells this organs for initiating dermal-epidermal interactions. Feather and hair follicles were provided from house pigeons and PVG rats، respectively. Some of the follicles were processed for histological examination whiles others were used to dissect out their dermal papilla. The dissected dermal papillae were cultured in vitro. The cultured cells were then implanted into papilla-depleted follicles. After 28 days the implanted follicles were histologically examined. Histological surveys revealed that despite some distinct differences، both follicles (feather and hair) share a similar histological structure. Hair’s dermal papilla cells showed a greater rate of growth as well as a higher and denser cell aggregation when compared to that of feather follicles. In contrast to hair papilla، the feather papilla cells were not able to grow a hair fiber in implanted follicles. Despite similarities in embryonic development، histological structure and cell growth in vitro، it seems that the signals coming from cultured dermal cells of a mature bird are not able to be understood by hair follicle epidermal cells and can not initiate dermal-epidermal interactions