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Raising Hairs
21 November 2013

Raising Hairs

For most people, hair loss is the result of follicles shrinking until they can no longer produce robust hairs. Although treatments can slow shrinkage and doctors can transplant existing healthy follicles, the best way to beat baldness is to make new ones. Scientists have done this in mice by culturing and transplanting dermal papilla cells – cells that give rise to follicles, shown here inside the cavity of a highly magnified follicle base. Unfortunately, the trick has never worked in humans. Researchers suspected this was because the cells were grown in a flat layer, which stops them sending signals to each other. Sure enough, when the cells were grown in hanging droplets clustering them into a ball – and were then implanted into human skin grafted onto a rat – they produced new follicles. The results raise the possibility that doctors could one day have a ready supply of fresh follicles for transplant.

Written by Daniel Cossins

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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