JAM-A facilitates hair follicle regeneration in alopecia areata through functioning as ceRNA to protect VCAN expression in dermal papilla cells

The dermal papilla cells in hair follicles function as critical regulators of hair growth. In particular, alopecia areata (AA) is closely related to the malfunctioning of the human dermal papilla cells (hDPCs). Thus, identifying the regulatory mechanism of hDPCs is important in inducing hair follicle (HF) regeneration in AA patients. Recently, growing evidence has indicated that 3′ untranslated regions (3′ UTR) of key genes may participate in the regulatory circuitry underlying cell differentiation and diseases through a so-called competing endogenous mechanism, but none have been reported in HF regeneration. Here, we demonstrate that the 3′ UTR of junctional adhesion molecule A (JAM-A) could act as an essential competing endogenous RNA to maintain hDPCs function and promote HF regeneration in AA. We showed that the 3′ UTR of JAM-A shares many microRNA (miRNA) response elements, especially miR-221–3p, with versican (VCAN) mRNA, and JAM-A 3′ UTR could directly modulate the miRNA-mediated suppression of VCAN in self-renewing hDPCs. Furthermore, upregulated VCAN can in turn promote the expression level of JAM-A. Overall, we propose that JAM-A 3′ UTR forms a feedback loop with VCAN and miR-221–3p to regulate hDPC maintenance, proliferation, and differentiation, which may lead to developing new therapies for hair loss.