Reprogramming of Human Hair Follicle Dermal Papilla Cells into Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
February 2012
in “
Journal of Investigative Dermatology
”
Studysummary This study found that dermal papilla cells from human hair follicles can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells, but their efficiency is similar to that of fibroblasts, unlike in mice.
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The 2012 study investigated the ability of hair follicle dermal papilla (DP) cells to be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The researchers successfully transformed human DP cells into DP-iPSCs, which demonstrated pluripotency and could differentiate into various cell and tissue types both in vitro and in vivo. However, the efficiency of reprogramming DP cells was not significantly different from adult human fibroblasts, suggesting no major improvement in reprogramming efficiency using DP cells over dermal fibroblasts for creating human iPSCs. The study concluded that the human hair follicle offers a readily available source of cells that can be reprogrammed to create iPSCs.
