In Vitro Mesenchymal–Epithelial Interaction Facilitates De Novo Hair Follicle Formation

The document from October 2016 discusses a study on hair regeneration, focusing on the potential of in vitro expanded cells to bioengineer new pilosebaceous units. The researchers hypothesized that the interaction between keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells is crucial for hair fiber formation. They demonstrated that adult dermal papilla cells can guide high-passage adult keratinocytes, which are typically considered to have lost their hair-forming ability, to differentiate and produce new hair fibers. This was evidenced by the expression of follicular genes such as Krt6 and Krt16 during co-culture, indicating that these cells can regain trichogenicity. The study suggests that it may be possible to bioengineer hair by expanding dermal and epidermal cells from a single adult hair, co-culturing them, and then combining them to form new hairs. This approach could potentially lead to large-scale hair production in the future.