Large-Scale Cultivation of Transplantable Dermal Papilla Cellular Aggregates Using Microfabricated PDMS Arrays

In the 2011 study, researchers successfully developed a method to cultivate dermal papilla (DP) cells into spheroidal microtissues using a micropatterned polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip, which could be used for hair follicle transplantation. The PDMS chip facilitated the formation of DP spheroidal microtissues by separating seeded cells into microwells. The study showed that these microtissues maintained their hair induction potential both in vitro and in vivo. A significant finding was that 352 DP microtissues could be harvested from a single well with a cell seeding density of 1 × 10^6 cells/well after 3 days. The microtissues were assessed for their expression of DP molecular markers and functionality, and they retained the ability to induce hair follicle formation when implanted into nude mice. The study concluded that the PDMS microwells on tissue culture polystyrene plates offer a promising platform for the large-scale production of functional DP microtissues for hair regeneration therapies. The animal experiments were conducted in triplicate with at least two animals per experimental group.