Hair Follicle Stem Cell May Hold Key to Ethical Medical Breakthroughs

An article in the San Diego Union-Tribune reports on effects by Salk Institute for Biological Research scientists to improve the method for reprogramming human cells to act like embryonic stem cells. They scientists, the paper said, literally pulled their hair out trying to achieve the results they wanted.

The Salk scientists showed they learned how to improve the process used to coax cells from an adult human backward down the development pathway so they become just like embryonic stem cells. These so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, or IPS cells, are then capable of turning into the 200 different cell types in the body.

Their secret? They used cells taken from the root of a hair follicle, called keratinocytes.

A team of Japanese researchers created a global stir last year when they showed they had reprogrammed human tissue cells to become IPS cells.

IPS cells are desirable because they do not require the destruction of a human embryo. And if ultimately used in a stem cell therapy, the recipient would not have an immune rejection reaction to his or her own cells.

If these IPS cells are ultimately used for therapeutic use, it would be simpler to use a single strand of hair to create them, rather than the Japanese team’s use of human tissue, said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, the lead author on the Salk paper.

The Japanese team needed 10,000 tissue cells to create one IPS cell. The Salk team used about 100 cells to create one IPS cell. While the Japanese team took about a month to reprogram the cells, Belmonte said, the Salk team did it in a week.

The Salk team found that the cells had a memory of the type of cell they used to be. Hair cells develop from ectodermal cells, which also develop into nerve, skin and neuronal cells. Although the hair keratinocytes could become any cells, it was easier to make them become one of the ectodermal cell types, Belmonte said.

The world is seeing rapid advances in the creation of IPS cells, said Evan Snyder, who heads the stem cell program at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla.

“This paper is in line with incremental advances that are being made in this field, moving toward greater efficiency, greater speed and less invasiveness,” Snyder said.

However, scientists still must figure out how to manipulate these cells without using viruses, as has been done by all researchers, he said. The viruses have been linked to cancer.

“I’m confident we’ll get there . . . soon,” Snyder said.

(London) Times: Baldness cure now in sight

Millions of men and women who suffer from premature baldness or hair loss could soon be able to regain their original lustrous locks - by cloning their remaining hair in the laboratory, research suggests.

The new technique, known as “follicular cell implantation”, has already shown positive results in continuing clinical trials on human beings. The work, being carried out by a British team, is being hailed as a major advance in hair restoration and is backed by a £1.9 million government grant.

The cell therapy has the potential to provide a limitless supply of an individual’s hair to replace that lost because of burns, cancer treatment or simply the onset of age, and could be available to patients within five years.

The latest results of the Phase II trial, presented at a conference of leading hair replacement surgeons in Rome, suggest that the technique can increase hair count in at least two thirds of patients after six months, and four out of five if the scalp is stimulated beforehand through gentle abrasions that encourage hair growth.

The new technique involves extracting dermal papilla (DP) cells, the basic cells responsible for hair growth, from a sample of only about 100 hairs from the back of the scalp – the area where hair usually continues to grow despite losses in other areas. These cells are then multiplied many times over in a special patented culture before being injected back into the scalp in their millions, stimulating the formation of new hair follicles or rejuvenating those that have stopped producing hair on the top of the head. Read more