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Hair Loss News Archives
August 2010
Stem Cell Researchers May Have Found Baldness Cure
Scientists have tried growing skin stem cells for transplantation, but the resultant tissues only last for a few weeks.
Aug 2010
Researchers working at the forefront of stem cell technology may
also unexpectedly have come up with a cure for baldness.
They almost miraculously changed one cell type into a completely
different one, but in the process ended up with skin cells complete
with working hair follicles.
A treatment for baldness was not the goal when they started
tinkering with cells from the thymus, a small but critical organ
that helps run the body’s immune system to fight disease.
Rather, they wanted to see how stem cells from the thymus would
perform if transplanted into growing skin as a way to help burns
victims.
The research teams from Switzerland and Scotland were more than
surprised when they transplanted thymus cells into the skin of lab
rats. They discovered that the cells forgot they were from the
thymus and began performing just like healthy skin cells.
“These cells really change track, expressing different genes and
becoming more potent,” said lead researcher Prof Yann Barrandon,
head of the stem cell lab at the University of Lausanne and the
local Polytechnique.
Details of the team’s findings are published this
morning in the journal Nature.
Being able to grow viable skin is a long-sought goal for doctors
trying to treat burns patients, whether they come with hair
follicles or not. Scientists have tried growing skin stem cells for
transplantation, but the resultant tissues only last for a few
weeks.
This new approach of changing one cell type into a completely
different one seems to perform much better, with this new skin
including follicles surviving for as long as a year.
The transformation of thymus cells into working skin cells is a
startling result that has huge implications, suggests Prof Barrandon
and his colleagues.
Importantly, this conversion process takes place without the need
for genetic modification. The thymus stem cells seem to respond to
the “local” environment, performing like skin cells because of their
transplantation into the skin.
Their assumption is that these cells will readily change into other
cell types in response to the environment into which they are
placed.
“This operation could have theoretically been reproduced with other
organs,” Prof Barrandon said. It works well with skin, but could
also be used to produce other cell types, in the process
contributing to the fields of organ transplantation and
regeneration.
The findings will also force a rethink of our assumptions about
biological processes. Before now researchers would have rejected the
possibility that one cell type could transform into another.
Source