Skin stem cells will help cure baldness
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Cologne have found a new way to produce stem cells that can be used to combat baldness, as well as to reduce the number of experiments on animals. Using the developed method, biologists managed to grow the skin of mice in a Petri dish. The biologists' article was published in The EMBO Journal (Sánchez-Danés et al., Maintaining hair follicle stem cell identity in a dish. The study is briefly reported on the institute's website (Reprogrammable skin stem cells in a test tube could reduce the number of animal experiments).
To create living tissue "in vitro", experts used hair follicle stem cells. They are located in the hair papillae and are able to transform into various types of cells that form the epidermis – the outer layer of the skin. Scientists extracted stem cells from mice and placed them in a polyacrylamide gel, where various nutrients and growth factors were also added.
It was shown that the cells could survive in a Petri dish for a long time. In addition, the presence of regulatory molecules contributed to the transformation of ordinary cells back into stem cells. Thus, scientists were able to create a system capable of imitating the properties of animal skin tissue. According to the researchers, this will allow us to study the effect of ultraviolet light on the outer body coverings of mice without irradiating the rodents themselves.
Similarly, human hair follicle stem cells can be multiplied and transplanted to a patient suffering from alopecia. Scientists plan to start experiments with human tissues in the near future.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
21.12.2016