Defining the epigenetic regulation of fibroblast lineages during embryonic development

The mammalian skin can support hair follicle formation during embryonic development, but this ability is lost as the skin matures. We have previously shown that, in murine skin starting at embryonic day 16.5 (E16.5), the dermal fibroblasts contained two distinct lineages with different functions. The upper papillary fibroblasts population supports the formation of new hair follicles. However, the mechanism by which embryonic fibroblasts lineages are established remained undefined. By performing ChIP-seq for different histone modifications markers comparing early embryonic fibroblasts (E14.5) and late differentiated embryonic fibroblasts (E17.5), we found a significant difference in H3K27me3 peaks at genes associated with fibroblast differentiation.