Hypoxia Enhances Differentiation of Hair Follicle-Associated Pluripotent Stem Cells to Cardiac Muscle Cells
September 2016
in “
Journal of Cellular Biochemistry
”
TLDR Low oxygen levels help hair follicle stem cells turn into heart muscle cells faster.
The study demonstrated that hair-follicle-associated pluripotent (HAP) stem cells, which express the neural stem-cell marker nestin, could differentiate into various cell types, including cardiac muscle cells. It was found that under hypoxic conditions, HAP stem cells differentiated into troponin-positive cardiac-muscle cells at a higher rate compared to normoxic conditions. This finding suggested that hypoxia could enhance the differentiation rate of HAP stem cells into cardiac muscle cells, potentially benefiting cardiac muscle regeneration by allowing patients to use their own easily accessible HAP stem cells.