Hair Follicle: A Novel Source of Multipotent Stem Cells for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

The document from 2013 reviews the potential of hair follicle stem cells (HF-SCs) for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, highlighting their multipotency and ability to differentiate into a variety of cell types, including neurons, glial cells, melanocytes, keratinocytes, and mesenchymal cells. It discusses the ease of accessibility and abundance of HF-SCs, their in vitro proliferative capacity, and in vivo multipotency, suggesting that they could be used for engineering various tissues and treating genetic diseases of skin or hair. The document also covers the potential applications of HF-SCs in drug and gene delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine, and notes the challenges in translating findings from murine models to human applications. It concludes that HF-SCs are a promising alternative to other stem cell sources and emphasizes the need for further research to better understand human hair follicle biology and develop in vitro models that mimic the in vivo environment.