Serial Cultivation of Human Scalp Hair Follicle Keratinocytes
July 1983
in “
Acta Dermato Venereologica
”
TLDR A method was developed to grow millions of hair cells from a single hair for research and storage.
The study described a method for the serial cultivation of adult human hair follicle keratinocytes. Researchers used plucked scalp hair follicles placed on bovine eye lens capsules as a growth substrate, which led to rapidly expanding colonies. The cells were then trypsinized and replated with irradiated 3T3 cells as feeders, allowing the keratinocytes to be subcultured up to four times. This technique enabled the generation of approximately 10 million keratinocytes from a single hair follicle and allowed for cryogenic storage, facilitating transportation. Additionally, subcultured keratinocytes could be plated on glass coverslips for immunofluorescence studies, with the keratin cytoskeletons visualized using an antiserum against human keratin.
