A key step against baldness: they grow hair follicles ready for transplantation in the laboratory

Scientists at the University of Yokohama (Japan) create mature mouse follicles ‘in vitro’ to repopulate areas devoid of hair “Our next step is to use cells of human origin and apply these advances in drug development and regenerative medicine,” he says one of the authorsThe technique would help to minimize the failures of current hair-to-hair graftsScientists at the University of Yokohama have achieved a key advance in regenerative medicine to solve the problem of failed hair grafts in cases, for example, of alopecia. For now, the finding has been achieved in mice, but for the first time they have created mature hair follicles in vitro with hair of a thickness and quality suitable for transplantation. The question is whether what has worked in mice will work in humans, and whether the results obtained in the laboratory (under fully controlled conditions) would be similar in a natural environment. To create this hair in vitro, the researchers cultured mouse skin cells in a special gel, where they were reprogrammed to create follicles that grew up to 3 millimeters in 100% of cases in a month. In addition, they included in the cultures a drug that stimulates melatonin, the hormone that gives hair color. Hair cultivation processniusdiario.esThe journal Science Advances, which publishes the research, details that “during embryonic development, the reciprocal interactions between the epidermal and mesenchymal layers trigger hair follicle morphogenesis. This study revealed that microenvironmental reprogramming by controlling these interactions enabled the induction of hair follicles in vitro.”This model may provide a platform to better understand follicle neogenesis and pigmentation. hairy, they point out.One of the laboratory-created hair folliclesNational University of Yokohama, JapanHair OrganoidsThe main tool used in the experiment are organoids, tiny versions of organs, with their architecture and physiology, that can be manipulated in the laboratory. The researchers stress that “when hair organoids were transplanted into the dorsal skin of nude mice, they showed strong hair regrowth activity and hair cycles repeated for at least 10 months (at roughly monthly intervals).” Our next The next step is to use human-derived cells and apply these advances in drug development and regenerative medicine,” Junji Fukuda, professor at the faculty of engineering at Yokohama National University, told Sky News. Hair TransplantationA. NOOR / BSIPTransplantation and researchThe finding solves one of the main problems of current hair implants, which require a good donor area from which to extract the hair, one by one, to transplant it in the required area, also one by one. In addition, certain types of natural hair have fewer chances of prospering in an autotransplant. Apart from its use in transplants, the results obtained open the p Open to growing hair as a study model for other hair research.