Hair Follicle Regeneration In Vitro
December 2016
in “
Paleontological Journal
”
TLDR Hair growth can be induced by transplanting certain cells, but these cells lose their properties during culturing. The best cell interaction happens in a liquid medium under gravity, and using collagen doesn't help. Future research could focus on using growth factors to stimulate these cells.
In 2016, researchers E. P. Kalabusheva and E. A. Vorotelyak conducted a study on hair follicle regeneration using dermal papilla (DP) cells and skin keratinocytes from six patients. They developed an artificial hair germ model and found that DP cells can induce hair follicle growth after transplantation in afollicular epidermis, but lose their inductive properties during culturing. The study also discovered that the optimal interaction of keratinocytes and DP cells occurred in a liquid medium under gravitation, in a hanging drop culture. The use of a collagen I gel matrix did not further develop the hair follicle germ. The researchers concluded that mixed aggregates display the early stages of hair follicle regeneration in vitro, but the use of extracellular matrix compounds inhibits this development. They suggested that using growth factors to stimulate DP cells or regulate the hair follicle cycle could be a promising area for future research.
