In Vivo Monitoring of Survival and Proliferation of Hair Stem Cells in a Hair Follicle Generation Animal Model

In the 2013 study by Kim et al., the researchers used a noninvasive bioluminescence imaging (BLI) technique to track the survival and proliferation of hair follicle stem cells in vivo. They transplanted newborn mouse fibroblasts expressing enhanced firefly luciferase (NF-effluc) into mice and monitored the bioluminescence signals. The luciferase activity in NF-effluc was significantly higher than in untransfected fibroblasts, and the bioluminescence signals decreased over two weeks before plateauing. Hair follicles were confirmed at the implantation site after 14 days, indicating that hair generation by stem cell implantation could be monitored noninvasively. The study demonstrated the potential of this imaging technique for hair loss research and treatment.