Lab-grown hair cells to treat hair loss may be on the horizon

A major breakthrough came in the early 2000s, when Japanese researchers discovered a simple formula that can turn any type of tissue into powerful stem cells, similar to those found in embryos. Imagination is crazy. Scientists realized that they could potentially create an infinite supply of cells of almost any type, such as nerves or heart muscle.

In practice, however, the formula to generate a specific cell type can be elusive, followed by the question of putting lab-grown cells back into the body. So far, only a few have demonstrated reprogramming as a way to treat patients.Japanese researchers try transplantation retinal cells become blind.Then, last November, a U.S. company, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, said Type 1 diabetes in men may be cured After infusion of insulin-responsive programmed beta cells.

The concept pursued by the startup is to harvest ordinary cells from patients, such as skin, and convert them into hair-forming cells. In addition to dNovo, a company called Stemson (its name is a combination of stem cells and Samson) has raised $22.5 million, including funding from pharmaceutical company AbbVie. Co-founder and CEO Jeff Hamilton said his company is testing the technology by transplanting reprogrammed cells into the skin of mice and pigs.

Both Hamilton and Lujan think there is a big market. Male pattern baldness occurs in about half of all men, some starting in their 20s. When women lose their hair, it’s usually a more general form of hair loss, but it also takes a toll on a person’s self-image.

These companies are bringing high-tech biology to an industry known for its fantasy. There are a lot of false claims about hair loss treatments and the potential of stem cells. “You have to watch out for scam products,” says Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell biologist at the University of California, Davis, Written in November.

tricky business

So will stem cell technology cure baldness or become the next false hope? Stemson founder Hamilton invited to keynote at this year’s conference Global Hair Loss Summit, and said he tried to highlight that the company still has a large number of research leaders. “We’ve seen so many [people] Come in and say they have a solution. This happens a lot in hair, so I have to fix that,” Hamilton said. “We’re trying to show the world that we’re real scientists, and the stakes are high, and I can’t guarantee it will work. “

Currently, there are some approved hair loss medications, such as Propecia and Rogaine, but they are of limited use. Another procedure involves surgeons cutting strips of skin from where a person still has hair and then transplanting these follicles into the bald head. In the future, lab-grown hair-forming cells could be implanted into a human head through a similar procedure, Lujan said.

“I think people will go a long way to get their hair back. But in the beginning, it’s going to be a bespoke process and it’s going to be expensive,” said Harvard professor Karl Koehler.

Hair follicles are surprisingly complex organs that arise through molecular crosstalk between several cell types. Photos of mice growing human hair are not new, Koehler said. “Anytime you see these images,” Koehler said, “there’s always a trick and a downside to translating it to a human.”

Koehler’s lab makes hair shafts in a completely different way — by growing organoids. Organoids are small clusters of cells that self-organize in a petri dish. Koehler said he was initially researching treatments for deafness and hoped to grow the hair cells of the inner ear. But his organoids ended up being skin, complete with hair follicles.

Koehler took the accident and has now created spherical skin organoids that can grow for about 150 days and become quite large—about 2 millimeters wide. The tubular hair follicles are clearly visible, he said, and are equivalent to the villi that cover a fetus.

One surprise is that the organoids grow backwards and the hairs turn inwards. “You can see a landscaped building, although why they grow from the inside out is a big question,” Koehler said.

The Harvard lab used reprogrammed cells created from a 30-year-old Japanese man. But it is studying cells from other donors to see if the organoids can cause hair to have a unique color and texture. “There’s definitely a demand,” Kohler said. “Cosmetics companies are interested. When they see organoids, their eyes glow.”