Limbal Microenvironment Can Induce Transdifferentiation of Hair Follicle Stem Cells Into Corneal Epithelial-Like Cells

The study investigated the ability of murine vibrissa hair follicle stem cells to differentiate into corneal epithelial-like cells when influenced by limbus-specific microenvironmental factors. Hair follicles were isolated, and stem cells were cultured on various extracellular matrices with different conditioned media. Results showed that laminin-5 and collagen IV supported cell adhesion and proliferation, while limbal fibroblast conditioned media induced differentiation into corneal epithelial-like cells, increasing CK12 expression and reducing CK10. The study concluded that hair follicle stem cells could potentially serve as a source for generating autologous epithelial cell sheets for ocular surface reconstruction.