Skin Cells Regenerate Hair Follicles in Mice
Posted on 17 May 2007 by admin
Scientists say skin cells have regenerated hair follicles in mice. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania found that when the skin of mice is wounded, epidermal cells can assume the properties of stem cells that generate hair follicles. Findings were published in the journal Nature.
While wounding grew less hair than was originally present, it did grow hair and researchers found that they could stimulate more or less growth by starting and stopping a gene in the mouse that produces proteins that stimulate hair regeneration.
Scientists discovered as a mouse’s wound heals, nearby epithelial cells assume the same properties as follicle cells, though the new hair grown lacks any pigment (is white in color). In this study, new stem cells produced a viable hair shaft that grew as normal hair through all the stages of a hairs lifecycle.
Professor George Cotsarelis, the studies lead author, co-founded the company Follica and has licensed a technology to develop hair restoration treatments.
“It’s all preliminary at the moment,” Cotsarelis told Nature. “If it all went perfectly, then possibly in two to three years we would have a product, but that’s very optimistic.”
Original source: CBC News
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