The battle of the bulge: re-evaluating hair follicle stem cells in wound repair

The hair follicle has an established role in wound re-epithelialisation, a phenomenon that has been appreciated since at least the first half of the last century. The bulge niche, one location of hair follicle epithelial stem cells has been of particular interest to researchers over recent years, with numerous studies showing its ability to directly contribute to epidermal repair. However, recent work has highlighted other progenitor regions of the hair follicle that appear to act as stem cells during epidermal repair. In addition, several studies within the last 12 months have questioned the importance of the bulge during re-epithelialisation, producing conflicting literature. Here we provide a new model to demonstrate how several important differences in experimental design between studies could account for these seemingly opposing findings, which may have implications for how future studies are conducted.