Hair-follicle-associated Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived From Cryopreserved Intact Human Hair Follicl

[Joxy]

The bulge area of the hair follicle contains hair-follicle-associated pluripotent (HAP) stem cells. Here, we present effective cryopreservation procedures of the human hair follicle that preserve the differentiation potential of HAP stem cells. Whole hair follicles isolated from human scalp were cryopreserved by a slow-rate cooling medium and stored in liquid nitrogen. A careful thawing method was used to collect the upper parts of the human hair follicles which were cultured for four weeks in a Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium with fetal bovine serum (FBS). Proliferating hair follicle cells were then shifted to DMEM/Ham’s Nutrient Mixture F-12 medium without FBS and allowed to grow for one week. These proliferating cells were able to produce HAP stem cell colonies with multilineage differentiation capacity. They produced keratinocytes, smooth muscle cells, cardiac muscle cells, neurons and glial cells. Interestingly, these cryopreserved hair follicles produced pluripotent HAP stem cell colonies similar to fresh follicles. These findings suggest that the cryopreserved whole human hair follicle preserves the ability to produce HAP stem cells, which will enable any individual to preserve a bank of these stem cells for personalized regenerative medicine.

Introduction

Hair-follicle bulge stem cells were originally shown to have the capacity to form hair-follicle cells, sebaceous-gland basal cells, and epidermis1,2,3,4,5. In addition to normal tissues homeostasis, these stem cells are involved in the regeneration of hair follicles and acute epithelial wound repair6,7. Subsequently, we discovered nestin-expressing stem cells in the bulge area of the hair follicle8,9. We found that nestin-expressing stem cells from both mouse and human have multilineage differentiation capacity that could produce neurons and other cell types10,11,12,13. We termed these nestin-expressing stem cells hair-follicle-associated pluripotent (HAP) stem cells. Previously, we demonstrated that isoproterenol and hypoxia can enhance the HAP stem cells to form cardiac muscle cells13,14. Further, it was shown that HAP stem cells from both mouse and human can fully repair the severed sciatic nerve and spinal cord of mice15,16,17 and showed homing capacity in experimental cortical dysplasia18.

Using a slow-rate cooling method, we previously demonstrated that cryopreserved whole-mouse hair follicles were able to maintain the pluripotency of HAP stem cells19. In the present study, we established effective cryopreservation procedures of the whole human hair follicle by slow-rate cooling and storage in liquid nitrogen, which preserved the multilineage-differentiation capacity of human HAP stem cells.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-45740-9

 

[Trichosan]

Very interesting. I can several implications for future hairloss treatment. Coincidentally, a recent Life Extension encourages people to bank their stem cells now. So it would be interesting to see if this HF procedure would be acceptable to cell banks. Of course we are thinking of saving our grandchildren from hairloss torture not us. However, if I were 20 or 30, I'd bank them now just in case a breakthrough occurs when you're 50/60+.
But, there might be some use for this in current research where stem cells (and possibly other progenitor cells associated with the hair follicle) can be "conditioned" to not be attacked by a host immune system. Here is where you would take embryological cells, perhaps even direct scalp biopsy from embryo, child, adult with super healthy hair and utilize for cloning and transplant when technique is perfected. Pure specuation here no doubt.