A Simple Assay for the Study of Human Hair Follicle Damage Induced by Ionizing Irradiation

July 2010 in “ Experimental dermatology ”

Burkhard Pöeggeler, Enikő Bodó, Roger Nadrowitz, Juergen Dunst, Ralf Paus

TLDR Ionizing radiation damages human hair follicles by stopping cell growth, causing cell death, disrupting color, and increasing stress and damage markers.

The study introduced a novel assay using organ-cultured human scalp hair follicles to investigate the effects of ionizing irradiation (IR) on hair follicle damage. The researchers found that IR exposure significantly inhibited the proliferation of hair follicle matrix keratinocytes and induced apoptosis. Additionally, IR disrupted normal hair follicle pigmentation and upregulated several toxicity and viability markers, including oxidative stress indicators, DNA oxidative damage, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. The findings suggest that human hair follicle organ culture can serve as an effective research tool for radiobiology and may be used as a preclinical assay system to test potential radioprotectants.

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research The Preventive Effect of Vitamin D3 on Radiation-Induced Hair Toxicity in a Rat Model

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research A Guide to Assessing Damage Response Pathways of the Hair Follicle: Lessons From Cyclophosphamide-Induced Alopecia in Mice

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The document concludes that assessing hair follicle damage due to cyclophosphamide in mice involves analyzing structural changes and suggests a scoring system for standardized evaluation.