Hairy, lab-grown human skin cell model could advance hair loss research


Date:
June 3, 2020
Source:
Oregon Health & Science University
Summary:
A new, hair-sprouting dollop of human skin created in the lab
might one day help prevent hair loss. An article describes the
hairy creation as the first hair-baring human skin organoid made
with pluripotent stem cells, or the master cells present during
early stages of embryonic development that later turn into specific
cell types.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new, hair-sprouting dollop of human skin created in the lab might one
day help prevent hair loss.


========================================================================== Organoids are small, lab-grown cell groupings are designed to model
real-world organs -in this case, skin. A paper published in Nature
describes the hairy creation as the first hair-baring human skin organoid
made with pluripotent stem cells, or the master cells present during early stages of embryonic development that later turn into specific cell types.

The hirsute organoid's development was led by Karl Koehler, Ph.D.,
formerly of Indiana University School of Medicine and now at Boston
Children's Hospital. An Oregon Health & Science University graduate
student, Benjamin Woodruff, contributed by helping make the organoids
as a post-baccalaureate research technician in the Stanford University
lab of Stefan Heller, Ph.D.

"This makes it possible to produce human hair for science without having
to take it from a human," explained Woodruff, who now is completing
his first year of cell and developmental biology graduate studies at
OHSU. "For the first time, we could have, more or less, an unlimited
source of human hair follicles for research." Having access to more hair-growing skin can help researchers better understand hair growth
and development -- and maybe even provide clues needed to reverse a
retreating hair line.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Oregon_Health_&_Science_University. Original written by Franny
White. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jiyoon Lee, Cyrus C. Rabbani, Hongyu Gao, Matthew R. Steinhart,
Benjamin
M. Woodruff, Zachary E. Pflum, Alexander Kim, Stefan Heller,
Yunlong Liu, Taha Z. Shipchandler, Karl R. Koehler. Hair-bearing
human skin generated entirely from pluripotent stem cells. Nature,
2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41586- 020-2352-3 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200603194442.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200603194442.htm

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