TLDR Researchers found a way to make rat hair follicle cells start turning into motor neuron-like cells, but couldn't fully turn them into working motor neurons.
The study investigated the potential of hair follicle neural crest stem cells (hfNCSCs) to differentiate into Olig2 positive motor neuron progenitors (MNPs) in rats. The researchers used a combination of 5 small molecules to induce hfNCSCs, which were harvested from the bulge area of hair follicles of male Sprague-Dawley rats. The induced cells displayed characteristics of neural stem cells and showed promising viability and morphology. The findings suggested that hfNCSCs could serve as a new cell source for motor neuron disease (MND) treatment, offering a potential alternative to autologous motor neurons, which are limited by their unrenewable nature.
7 citations
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January 2016 in “Methods in molecular biology” Neurons from hair follicles can help repair damaged nerves.
36 citations
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7 citations
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3 citations
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9 citations
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11 citations
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February 2019 in “Stem cells international” Skin-derived stem cells grow faster and are easier to obtain than hair follicle stem cells, but both can become various cell types.
