LAUSR

Abstract The quality and yield of cashmere are closely related to the growth and development of the secondary hair follicles of cashmere goats. Outer root sheath cell (ORSC) proliferation is considered particularly important for the growth and development of hair follicles; however, the factors affecting this are unclear. We previously showed that the expression of nerve growth factor (NGF) in secondary follicle ORSCs was significantly higher in the anagen phase than in the catagen phase, suggesting that NGF promotes ORSC proliferation. To investigate whether ORSCs secrete NGF, and to investigate its role in ORSCs from goat secondary hair follicles, we used enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to show that NGF levels in cultured ORSC medium decreased significantly with the passage of time (P