Gone today, hair tomorrow
28 Jan 2015
Researchers at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, US have used stem cells to grow human hair on mice.
The study represents the first step toward the development of a stem cell-based treatment for people with hair loss, the researchers said.
“We have developed a method using human pluripotent stem cells to create new cells capable of initiating human hair growth,” said Alexey Terskikh, associate professor at Sanford-Burnham.
“Our next step is to transplant human dermal papilla cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells back into human subjects
Alexey Terskikh
“The method is a marked improvement over current methods that rely on transplanting existing hair follicles from one part of the head to another,” Terskikh said.
According to Terskikh, the stem cell method is designed to provide an unlimited source of cells from a patient for transplantation, and it is not limited by the availability of existing hair follicles.
To conduct it study, the research team developed a protocol that coaxed human pluripotent stem cells to become dermal papilla cells - a unique population of cells that regulate hair-follicle formation and growth cycle.
“In adults, dermal papilla cells cannot be readily amplified outside of the body and they quickly lose their hair-inducing properties,” Terskikh said.
“We developed a protocol to drive human pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into dermal papilla cells and confirmed their ability to induce hair growth when transplanted into mice.
“Our next step is to transplant human dermal papilla cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells back into human subjects,” said Terskikh.
