Peer Review of Establishment of an Immortalized Mouse Dermal Papilla Cell Strain with Optimized Culture Strategy

In 2018, a study was conducted to optimize the isolation and culture methods of dermal papilla (DP) cells and establish an immortalized line. The researchers made improvements to the culture medium, adding sodium pyruvate, non-essential amino acids, and FGF2, although the latter had little effect by itself. The study also attempted to clarify the difference between 2D and 3D environments for cell culture. The researchers created an immortalized DP cell line, iDP6, which showed similarity to primary DP cells. However, the study was criticized for not clearly explaining the benefits of an immortalized line over a primary line, and for not showing the profile of primary cells for comparison. The study also did not provide sufficient detail on the number of times certain protocols were performed or how many other media were attempted before settling on the optimized one.