hair follicle dermal papilla cell A specialized fibroblast that resides in the dermal papilla located at the bottom of hair follicles. This cell orchestrates reciprocal epithelial-mesenchymal signaling essential for hair follicle morphogenesis and cycling, regulating matrix cell proliferation and differentiation to control hair shaft size, shape, and growth. The dermal papilla cell is replenished each hair cycle from bipotent hair follicle dermal stem cells in the dermal sheath that simultaneously self-renew and contribute progeny to the papilla, particularly during anagen. The dermal papilla contains functionally heterogeneous Sox2-positive subpopulations that serve as a niche for multipotent stem cells. These cells exhibit progenitor properties, generate skin-derived precursors (SKPs), and can differentiate into adipogenic and osteogenic lineages. hair follicle DPC fibroblast of dermis