In Vivo Monitoring of Survival and Proliferation of Hair Stem Cells in Hair Follicle Regeneration Animal Model
May 2012
in “
The Journal of Nuclear Medicine
”
TLDR Hair stem cells were tracked in mice using a special imaging technique, showing that it's possible to monitor hair growth this way.
This study aimed to investigate the in vivo trafficking of hair follicle stem cells using non-invasive bioluminescence imaging. The researchers established hair follicle stem cells expressing a reporter gene called effluc and transplanted them into nude mice. They then used bioluminescence imaging to track the survival and proliferation of these cells over time. The results showed that the bioluminescence signal from the transplantation site decreased gradually over two weeks and then plateaued. Hair follicle regeneration was confirmed at the implantation site, demonstrating the feasibility of monitoring hair generation using this imaging strategy in an animal model.
