The constituents of the dermis are mesodermal in origin except for nerves, which, like melanocytes, derive from the neural crest.

CD44 is a family of trans-membrane glycoprotein that is widely expressed in many tissues derived from epithelial, mesenchymal, hematopoietic and mesodermal origins.

Surprisingly, restricted regions of the embryo generated both migrating neural crest cells and their derivative cell types, without any interaction with neural or mesodermal tissues.