The Multipotency of Adult Vibrissa Follicle Stem Cells

    March 2009 in “ Differentiation
    Alessandro W. Amici, Masayuki Yamato, Teruo Okano, Koichi Kobayashi
    TLDR Adult vibrissa follicle stem cells can regenerate hair follicles, glands, and skin.
    In this study, researchers successfully cultured and detached intact bulge keratinocyte sheets from rat vibrissa follicles using thermo-responsive culture dishes, avoiding conventional enzymatic digestion. When these sheets were recombined with adult dermal papilla (DP) and sole skin dermis in vivo, they observed the regeneration of epidermis, sebaceous gland-like structures, and hair bulb formation within 3 weeks. However, no structures formed when cloned bulge keratinocytes were used, suggesting the presence of monoclonal stem cells in the bulge region. This provided direct evidence that adult bulge keratinocytes are multipotent and can respond to adult DP signals to induce hair follicle formation.
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