Our Panel of Experts Highlight the Most Important Research Articles Across the Spectrum of Topics Relevant to the Field of Regenerative Medicine

In 2015, Kiso and colleagues discovered that two cytokines, PDGF and FGF2, can work together to maintain the hair inductive potential of mouse dermal papilla cells in vitro. This finding suggested that human dermal papilla cells could potentially be expanded in the presence of these two growth factors to generate enough cells for a follicular cell implantation therapy for hair loss. However, it was still necessary to confirm the function of PDGF and FGF2 on human dermal papilla cells. Another study by Rezza et al. found that PDGF signaling was not required for hair follicle morphogenesis, suggesting that growth factors work in concert to exert biological functions. The combination of both PDGF and FGF2 induced hair growth in both assays conducted by Kiso et al. These findings could potentially lead to therapeutic advancements for hair follicle regeneration.