Dermal Papilla Cells Serially Cultured with Wnt-10b Sustain Their Hair Follicle Induction Activity After Transplantation into Nude Mice

In the 2012 study, researchers found that Wnt-10b significantly promoted the proliferation of dermal papilla (DP) cells, which are essential for hair follicle induction and hair growth. The DP cells cultured with Wnt-10b maintained over 90% of their alkaline phosphatase activity and their Wnt responsiveness after 10 serial passages over 100 days. When these cells were transplanted into nude mice, they successfully induced hair growth, forming hair follicles histologically similar to normal skin. The study concluded that Wnt-10b is an effective agent for maintaining the hair follicle induction ability of DP cells in vitro, even after prolonged culture periods. However, the number of mice used in the transplantation experiments was not specified.