Hair Transplantation in Mice: Challenges and Solutions

In a 2016 study, researchers successfully established a new mouse model for hair follicle transplantation, which involved transferring whisker follicles from GFP transgenic mice to the back skin of nude mice. The study did not specify the total number of mice used but mentioned two experimental groups with 5 and 7 mice, respectively, and a total of 168 hair follicles were transplanted. The transplanted follicles had a high survival rate of 89% at 6 weeks and were shown to integrate with the host's skin, including innervation and connection to the circulatory system. The study found that GFP-positive cells from the transplanted follicles migrated to the healing epithelium in wounded skin but not to the interfollicular epidermis in unwounded skin, indicating a role in wound healing but not in skin homeostasis. The difference in cell migration was statistically significant, with a P-value of less than 0.01.