Characterization of Hair Follicle Development in Engineered Skin Substitutes

    June 2013 in “ PLOS ONE ”
    Penkanok Sriwiriyanont, Kaari A. Lynch, Kevin L. McFarland, Dorothy M. Supp, Steven T. Boyce
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    TLDR Engineered skin substitutes can grow hair but have limitations like missing sebaceous glands and hair not breaking through the skin naturally.
    In the 2013 study, researchers explored hair follicle development in engineered skin substitutes (ESS) by grafting human keratinocytes and murine dermal papilla cells onto mice. They found that chimeric skin substitutes formed pigmented hairs without sebaceous glands, while murine-only substitutes formed external hairs with glands, and human-only substitutes did not form follicles or glands at all. The chimeric hair did not naturally erupt through the skin, but hair shafts were visible upon removal of the skin's upper layer. Gene expression analysis showed upregulation of hair-related genes and downregulation of a sebaceous gland marker, indicating that sebaceous glands are not essential for hair development in ESS. The study concluded that while ESS can support hair regeneration, there are limitations, such as the absence of sebaceous glands and the hair's inability to erupt naturally. This research contributes to the understanding of hair follicle development in tissue-engineered skin and the potential for hair restoration, particularly for burn patients.
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