Hair cells are richer source of stem cells

In a report which was published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that it might be possible that human hair follicles can be a source for stem cells.

Dr. Robert Hoffman, who is leading this study, and his team isolated stem cells from hair and manipulated them in such a way that they became brain cells. They removed mice whiskers and isolated cells from the follicle. These cells became neurons within one week. Over time, they then developed into other types of cells.

Stem cells can ultimately develop into important body cells which can then be used to treat a variety of diseases including heart conditions, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Hoffman points out how much easier it is to harvest cells from hair follicles than from other sources. ‘Plucking a hair follicle, as opposed to digging out bone marrow, digging out cells in the brain — the access is the real potential advantage,’ he said.

Additionally, using hair follicles eliminates the ethical problems that some people have in using embryonic stem cells for research. ‘You don’t have any political problems, either, you would like using embryonic stem cells,’ Hoffman said.

Also study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, state that hair cells are a richer source of stem cells than the scalp etc.

In the research conducted, beard cells produced more stem cell factor than scalp cells, while the beard and scalp fibroblasts secreted significantly less stem cell factor. The research also shows that androgens may alter the production of stem cell factors in the hair, for certain period in the life of a hair strand. However, this in no way reduces the importance of the fact that dermal papilla of the hair follicle is the richest source of stem cells till date. Scientists are of the opinion that this is probably due to the reason that hair grows very fast and can replenish itself also equally fast.

Stem cells are nascent cells capable of becoming any cell on maturation. One major hurdle in the stem cell research was the production of the stem cells. Taking these cells from the human embryo had generated a lot of controversies. Hence this new source of stem cells will boost not only the study of the stem cells and their therapeutic uses, but may create a new treatment to cure baldness.

While others in the field praise Hoffman for his work, some are concerned that, important properties in mice and human hair are too different and that this may not be applicable to humans.

Researchers hope that transplanting stem cells could provide treatment for a range of diseases such as Parkinson’s, in which brain cells are destroyed; diabetes, in which insulin-producing cells die; or spinal cord injuries.

Much remains to be done, Hoffman stressed. His team is working on growing large numbers of cells from hair stem cells and seeing how easily they can be differentiated into different cell types.