interestingengineering.com
A Cure for Baldness May Lie in Engineering Stem-Cells That Regenerate
The scientists may have produced hair that recycles itself.
Science & Tech
Scientists at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research in Japan led by Takashi Tsuji have been working on ways to regenerate lost hair from stem cells. And they may just have made an important breakthrough!
In mammals, hair grows in a continuous cyclical process that sees hair grow, fall out, and grow again. Therefore, a successful hair-regeneration treatment would need to produce hair that also recycles itself.
To test whether stem cells from fur and whisker from mice cultured in the NFFSE medium (a type of collagen with five factors) could produce hair that cycles, the researchers observed the regenerated hair for several weeks. They also used 220 combinations of ingredients.
The scientists found that 81% of hair follicles generated in NFFSE medium went through at least three hair cycles and produced normal hair while 79% of follicles grown in the other medium produced only one hair cycle.