In ovo injection of CHIR-99021 promotes feather follicles development via activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway during chick embryonic period

The Wingless-types/beta-catenin (Wnt/β-catenin) signaling pathway plays an important role in embryonic development and affects the physiological development processes of feather follicles. To investigate the role of Wnt/β-catenin pathway in regulating feather follicles morphogenesis, in ovo injection of CHIR-99021, an activator of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, was conducted in chick embryo model. Initially, a total of 40 embryos were used to assess feather follicles morphogenesis and the expression of β-catenin (E9–E17). The histological results showed that feather follicle morphogenesis was mainly completed from E9 to E17. β-catenin was involved in the processing of the appearance of dermal cell condensation (E9) and the completion of the feather follicles morphogenesis (E17). Next, a total of 160 fertilized eggs were randomly divided into 8 groups for in ovo injection at E9, including a Normal Saline injected group (CON) and the 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 50,000, and 100,000 ng CHIR-99021 groups. Dorsal skin tissue samples were collected at E17 for investigating feather follicles morphology and expressions of β-catenin and lymphoid enhancerbinding factor-1 (LEF1) at gene and protein levels. The results showed that feather follicle diameter in the injected groups were significantly (P < 0.05) increased with limit dose-independence compared to the CON group. CHIR-99021 significantly (P < 0.05) influenced the mRNA expressions of catenin beta-1 (CTNNB1) and downstream target LEF1. In ovo injection of CHIR-99021 caused that β-catenin and LEF1 were significantly (P < 0.05) increased followed the increased doses as determined by western blotting. The immunochemical results showed that β-catenin was detected in the dermal papilla of feather follicles. Given these results, this study suggests to developmental biology that in ovo injection of CHIR-99021 promoted feather follicles morphogenesis and development via activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and upregulating downstream target LEF1 during embryonic period in chick embryo model. Moreover, CHIR-99021 may be a strong candidate to promote the animal feather/hair industry, especially as a reference for bird feather production.