- Reaction score
- 2,721
Date:
February 1, 2018
Source:
Yokohama National University
Summary:
Researchers have developed a method for the mass preparation of cellular aggregates, also known as 'hair follicle germs (HFGs)', that may lead to a new treatment for hair loss.
The therapy involves regenerating hair follicles, the tiny organs that grow and sustain hair. One of the more challenging obstacles to hair regenerative medicine has been the preparation of hair follicle germs, the reproductive source of hair follicles, on a large scale.
The paper, published in the journal Biomaterials, reports the successful preparation of up to 5000 HFGs simultaneously, and reports new hair growth from the HFGs after transplantation into mice.
"The key for the mass production of HFGs was a choice of substrate materials for culture vessel," says the corresponding author Junji Fukuda, Professor, Yokohama National University. "We used oxygen-permeable dimethylpolysiloxane (PDMS) at the bottom of culture vessel, and it worked very well."
The research group further evaluated the feasibility of this method by transferring the prepared HFGs from a fabricated approximately 300-microwell array, called "HFG chip," to generate hair follicles and hairs on the mouse body. The group confirmed black hair generation at both the back and scalp transplantation sites. The regenerated hair exhibited the typical hair cycle of murine hair.
"This simple method is very robust and promising. We hope that this technique will improve human hair regenerative therapy to treat hair loss such as androgenic alopecia," adds Fukuda. "In fact, we have preliminary data that suggests human HFG formation using human keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180201142853.htm
Here’s the published study:
Hair follicle morphogenesis is triggered by reciprocal interactions between hair follicle germ (HFG) epithelial and mesenchymal layers. Here, we developed a method for large-scale preparation of HFGs in vitro via self-organization of cells. We mixed mouse epidermal and mouse/human mesenchymal cells in suspension and seeded them in microwells of a custom-designed array plate. Over a 3-day culture period, cells initially formed a randomly distributed single cell aggregate and then spatially separated from each other, exhibiting typical HFG morphological features. These self-sorted hair follicle germs (ssHFGs) were shown to be capable of efficient hair-follicle and shaft generation upon intracutaneous transplantation into the backs of nude mice. This finding facilitated the large-scale preparation of approximately 5000 ssHFGs in a microwell-array chip made of oxygen-permeable silicone. We demonstrated that the integrity of the oxygen supply through the bottom of the silicone chip was crucial to enabling both ssHFG formation and subsequent hair shaft generation. Finally, spatially aligned ssHFGs on the chip were encapsulated into a hydrogel and simultaneously transplanted into the back skin of nude mice to preserve their intervening spaces, resulting in spatially aligned hair follicle generation. This simple ssHFG preparation approach is a promising strategy for improving current hair-regenerative medicine techniques.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961217307214?via=ihub#!
So from what I gather, this is a new RAPID
hair regenerative technique, where the hair follicle stem cell is made into a “germ”, then made into a silicone chip or hydrogel which is implanted into ththe scalp, yielding up to 5000 germs.
