Induced Follicles - Bernstein Medical - Center for Hair Restoration
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Dr. Claire Higgins and her colleague Dr. Colin Jahoda have published an overview of hair cloning and the challenges scientists face in attempting to develop hair regeneration therapies for androgenetic alopecia or common balding. The article, published in Hair Transplant Forum International, points to two central problems in developing a hair loss therapy. The first is the difficulty in getting dermal papilla cells in humans to self-aggregate and form hair follicles and the second is the inability, thus far, of scientists to generate normal hairs and follicles.

Higgins and Jahoda describe how it has been known for decades, through the work of Lille and Wang and others, that rat dermal papillae self-organize into new hair-producing follicles when they are injected or grafted into the skin. Human dermal papilla cells, on the other hand, have never exhibited what they call the “aggregation phenomena,” and instead they disperse in the skin in what appears to be a wound healing mechanism. In fact, human papillae, when grown in a laboratory culture, can act as “mesenchymal stem cells” and differentiate into a variety of cell types.

While multiple efforts to induce dermal papillae to form new hair follicles have failed, the research that Higgins and Jahoda have published on hair follicle neogenesis has resulted in a new technique to do just that. The success of the 3-D culturing of dermal papillae to induce hair follicle neogenesis was a breakthrough in that the scientists have found a way to improve the intercellular communication that is essential to inducing follicle growth.

Having made significant progress in improving this vital communication link between dermal papillae cells, scientists still have to contend with a series of obstacles that stand in the way of a hair cloning therapy for human hair loss. One such problem is the quality of hairs that they have been able to grow using the hair follicle neogenesis technique. The hairs they have successfully produced have been small and have grown in non-uniform direction. Another unanswered issue is how long the hair follicles will grow and whether or not they exhibit the cyclical hair follicle growth patterns of a typical human hair follicle. The ability to reproduce significant quantities of normal hair will continue to be the central focus of research going forward.

Bookmark our Hair Cloning Research page to stay on top of developments in this field

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Q: Considering cell cultivation is made possible how could their injection create a normal formation of hair on the scalp and can they induce hair growth also in scarred areas where previously hair stopped growing?

A: That is the question. It is not known if these induced follicles will resemble normal hairs, and be cosmetically acceptable on their own, or if they will grow unruly and must be used as a filler behind more aesthetically pleasing transplanted hair.

Hair growth is an interaction between the dermal components (fibroblasts in the dermal sheath and dermal papillae) and the epidermal structures.

It is possible that the injected dermal fibroblasts will interact with resident epithelial cells to produce a properly oriented hair. A tunnel of epithelial cells can also be created to facilitate this process and some researchers are using cultures of both dermal and epithelial cells.

As you suggest, part of the challenge is not just to multiply the hair but to find a way for the hair to grow in its proper orientation. With scar tissue, the task will obviously be much more difficult.

Another issue is that the induced follicles are just that, they are single hair follicles rather than complete follicular units. Because of this they wouldn’t have the cosmetic elegance of one’s own natural hair, unlike that which is possible in follicular unit hair transplantation.

That said, much work still needs to be done and it is not clear at this time what might be the solution.

Read more on the Hair Cloning page on the Bernstein Medical – Center for Hair Restoration website.

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