Single-cell transcriptomic reconstruction of the human hair cycle: Capturing the temporal dynamics of skin tissue remodeling

To investigate dynamic molecular and cellular changes associated with skin tissue remodeling during the human hair cycle, we aimed to obtain single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from different hair cycle phases. We obtained scRNA-seq from randomly dissected human skin samples containing a single hair. Nineteen small skin pieces with a single hair were dissected from three female donors (single-hair samples). For comparison, we also collected three small skin pieces with no hairs from the same donors (non-hair samples). We enzymatically removed the interfollicular epidermis to focus our analysis on hair follicles and their surrounding dermis, which are the main areas of hair cycle-dependent tissue remodeling.