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Whats New in Hair Cloning

Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells

By Nicholas Wade
New York Times 6/7/2007

Summary:
A major advance in regenerative medicine has recently been announced. A new technique, which can convert adult skin cells into embryonic form, has been successfully performed on interbred mice by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University. The technique, if adaptable to human cells could allow new heart, liver, or kidney cells to be regenerated from simple skin cells. This tissue could potentially replace organ tissue that has been damaged due to disease. As this tissue would be formed from the patient's own skin cells, it would not be subject to rejection by the patient's immune system. Read more


Hair Follicle Regeneration

Hair Follicle Regeneration in Adult Mouse Skin After Wounding
Ito, M., et al. Nature 447, 316-320, May 17, 2007

This study demonstrates that after wounding the skin of an adult mouse, an embryonic-like change in the epidermal cells outside of the hair follicle stem cells can be induced to form new hair follicle stem cells. In other words, these cells originate from epidermal skin cells in the wound, but then are able take on the characteristics of hair follicle stem cells and actually produce hair. These regenerated hair follicles establish a stem cell population that can produce a hair shaft and continue through all stages of the follicular cycle. The research suggests that these regenerated hair follicles grow new hair through the introduction of Wnt proteins.

The technology, developed at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been licensed by Follica Inc. a privately held medical device company.


U.K. Invests in Hair Cloning Research

The British Government has awarded Intercytex a grant to automate the production of their new hair regeneration therapy. Intercytex is a cell therapy company that develops products to restore and regenerate skin and hair. Intercytex has partnered with a private company, The Automation Partnership (TAP), to develop an automated manufacturing process for their novel hair multiplication treatment.
Read more about this hair cloning research.


Hedgehog and Hair Growth

Curis, Inc., a drug development company, has published data showing the effectiveness of a proprietary Hedgehog pathway activator to stimulate hair growth in adult mice. The study shows that a topically applied small molecule agonist of the Hedgehog signaling pathway can stimulate hair follicles to pass from the resting stage to the growth stage of the hair cycle. The Hedgehog agonist produces no other noticeable short or long-term changes in the skin of the mice.

This study also demonstrated that the Hedgehog agonist is active in human scalp in vitro as measured by Hedgehog pathway gene expression. The results suggest that topical application of a Hedgehog agonist could be effective in treating hair loss conditions, including male and female pattern genetic hair loss.

Preliminary results were presented at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) in February 2005. This work was based on a study In 2001 by Sato et. Al. who showed that the Sonic hedgehog gene is involved in the initiation of hair growth in mice (1).

1. Sato N., Leopold PL, Crystal, RG. Effect of Adenovirus-Mediated Expression of
Sonic Hedgehog Gene on Hair Regrowth in Mice With Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2001, Vol. 93, No. 24.


Hair Cloning: Hope for Bald Baby Boomers

An English based company called Intercytex has claimed some success in its research on hair cloning with its first testing in humans. This technique is similar to the one initially proposed by Dr. Colin Jahoda and published in 1999. PDF Article

The idea is that certain cells (called fibroblasts) found at the bottom of hair follicles can be separated from the follicles after they have been removed from the scalp, and then be used to form new follicles.

The way this works is as follows: A few hair follicles at the permanent area from the back of the scalp (the area that does not bald) are removed. In a lab, the germinative cells at the base of the follicle are dissected off and placed in a Petri-dish. They are then incubated in a special medium and allowed to multiply thousands of times.

These cultured cells are then injected into the balding area of the scalp where they induce complete hair follicles to form. In contrast to traditional hair transplants, where the doctor is limited by the patients finite donor supply and hair is literally just moved around (from the back to the front), in hair cloning, there will be an actual increase in the total number of hairs on a person’s head.

Initial testing involved 7 male volunteers that were suffering from androgenetic alopecia (common baldness). After the process, 5 of them showed an increased amount of hair. Fortunately, there were no complications, such as skin inflammation or tissue rejection. However, the test area was small and volunteers only grew a little hair.

Towards the middle of next year, additional patients will be tested using a greater number of cloned cells, so that a larger area of the scalp could be covered. The researchers speculate that this new cloning technology may be on the market in as soon as 5 years.

The researchers speculate that in the distant future, traditional hair transplants may not be needed at all. Instead, as patients start to thin, they could come to the clinic on a regular basis for injections of their own cells to stimulate the growth of new follicles and stop the impending balding – a sort of hair maintenance.

Reference: The Plain Dealer, Tuesday, November 15, 2005. “Hope grows for bald baby boomers,” Malcolm Ritter, Associated Press.


Skin Cells Substitute for Embryonic Stem Cells in Cloning Research

The advantage of using embryonic stem cells in cloning research, organ transplantation, and in finding cures for disease, is that these cells are basically “unprogrammed.” This means that the stem cell has not yet determined what it will grow to become so, in theory at least, scientists can manipulate them into becoming anything that they are programmed to be.

Two teams of scientists working independently (Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, Japan and James Thompson’s team at the University of Wisconsin) announced that they had successfully replicated the biological abilities of the embryonic stem cell using only skin cells.  Called “induced pluripotent stem cells” these former skin cells were programmed to become other types of cells, acting in the same way as the embryonic stem cells. . .  Read More