In the lab, USC researchers created skin with hair follicles from stem cells, which they transplanted onto the shaved back of a host mouse. Within a short time, vigorous hair production was noted.
Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong, professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is the senior investigator of a study published by the Stem Cell Laboratory of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. He and his team of researchers are discovering a means by which hair follicles can be grown from skin cells reproduced in vitro in the lab. The study was funded principally by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In it, researchers outline a step-by-step sequence of events in the production of hair follicles from skin. Specifically, they were able to generate hair by uncovering the major molecular events necessary for the growth of skin and fostering it in adult shaved mice.
"Many aging individuals do not grow hair well, because adult cells lose their regenerative ability. But with our new findings, we are able to make adult mouse cells produce hair again," says Dr. Chuong.
Researchers at the USC lab could not confirm exactly when human trials could begin but were optimistic their findings could inspire a method for treating humans with alopecia and baldness in the near future by using some of the patient's own stem cells to grow skin with hair follicles in a lab, then transplanting it onto balding areas of the scalp.
The science behind the study
Stem cells, by definition, are undifferentiated cells that can be transformed into specialized cells to produce more of their kind. In adults they are used to maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, bone marrow and skin. Based on findings by scientists at the University of Toronto in the 1960s, stem cell research has increased greatly over the last 50 years.
According to Dr. Mingxing Lei, the first author of the USC study, he and his international team of scientists used progenitor cells, a cell type more differentiated from stem cells. They transplanted the cells into shaved mice and from there witnessed how the cells behaved and recording the hair development that followed.
"Many aging individuals do not grow hair well, because adult cells lose their regenerative ability. But with our new findings, we are able to make adult mouse cells produce hair again." -Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong, professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine
The team noted that these cells formed skinlike "organoids," 3-D assemblies of cells that gathered themselves into an organlike structure, which in this case was the ability to grow hair. Further, they took hundreds of time-lapse movies to analyze the collective cell behavior.
Next, they observed how the cells combined themselves into polarized cysts, which then coalesced to form layered skin. From it they created skin with hair follicles that were transplanted onto the back of a host mouse. Finally, they observed as the follicles vigorously produced hair. "We used a combination of bioinformatics and molecular screenings" to facilitate their analyses, Dr. Lei explained.
Concurrent with the research being done at USC, a variety of studies into the regeneration of human hair is under way. One is at the Yale University School of Medicine under the guidance of Dr. Valerie Horsley, associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, who expressed continuing interest in the research being done by Drs. Chuong and Lei. She is, she says, "excited by the work" being done at USC and looks forward to further results.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/usc-stem-cell-scientists-developing-a-new-cure-all-for-baldness.html
Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong, professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is the senior investigator of a study published by the Stem Cell Laboratory of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. He and his team of researchers are discovering a means by which hair follicles can be grown from skin cells reproduced in vitro in the lab. The study was funded principally by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In it, researchers outline a step-by-step sequence of events in the production of hair follicles from skin. Specifically, they were able to generate hair by uncovering the major molecular events necessary for the growth of skin and fostering it in adult shaved mice.
"Many aging individuals do not grow hair well, because adult cells lose their regenerative ability. But with our new findings, we are able to make adult mouse cells produce hair again," says Dr. Chuong.
Researchers at the USC lab could not confirm exactly when human trials could begin but were optimistic their findings could inspire a method for treating humans with alopecia and baldness in the near future by using some of the patient's own stem cells to grow skin with hair follicles in a lab, then transplanting it onto balding areas of the scalp.
The science behind the study
Stem cells, by definition, are undifferentiated cells that can be transformed into specialized cells to produce more of their kind. In adults they are used to maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, bone marrow and skin. Based on findings by scientists at the University of Toronto in the 1960s, stem cell research has increased greatly over the last 50 years.
According to Dr. Mingxing Lei, the first author of the USC study, he and his international team of scientists used progenitor cells, a cell type more differentiated from stem cells. They transplanted the cells into shaved mice and from there witnessed how the cells behaved and recording the hair development that followed.
"Many aging individuals do not grow hair well, because adult cells lose their regenerative ability. But with our new findings, we are able to make adult mouse cells produce hair again." -Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong, professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine
The team noted that these cells formed skinlike "organoids," 3-D assemblies of cells that gathered themselves into an organlike structure, which in this case was the ability to grow hair. Further, they took hundreds of time-lapse movies to analyze the collective cell behavior.
Next, they observed how the cells combined themselves into polarized cysts, which then coalesced to form layered skin. From it they created skin with hair follicles that were transplanted onto the back of a host mouse. Finally, they observed as the follicles vigorously produced hair. "We used a combination of bioinformatics and molecular screenings" to facilitate their analyses, Dr. Lei explained.
Concurrent with the research being done at USC, a variety of studies into the regeneration of human hair is under way. One is at the Yale University School of Medicine under the guidance of Dr. Valerie Horsley, associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, who expressed continuing interest in the research being done by Drs. Chuong and Lei. She is, she says, "excited by the work" being done at USC and looks forward to further results.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/usc-stem-cell-scientists-developing-a-new-cure-all-for-baldness.html
