Quality Assurance Program for Hair Transplant & Hair Replacement

Once again, we would like to thank TAFP for providing the link where we can download the abstracts for the 3rd Intercontinental Meeting of Hair Research Societies. For those of you who are unable to download the PDF file or do not have the time to go through over 125 pages of technical information, HairSite will be providing a 6-part synopsis and summaries in the coming weeks, broken down in the following sections:

1) Research on stem cells
2) Research on dermal papilla cells
3) Research on gene therapy
4) Research on currently available treatments such as minoxidil, finasteride,
amino acids etc.
5) Research on female hair loss
6) Other

In order for you to appreciate and understand some of the information presented in the upcoming 6-part series, we are providing herein an overview of research in hair follicle stem cells.

Those of you who are not scientifically inclined and have little interest in technical details, we hope that you will at least understand the term "Label Retaining Cells" (LRCs) before you click the mouse. To put it simply, LRC is a scientific term referring to the presumptive stem cells that scientists are hoping to identify in our body.

Lately everybody is turning their attention to hair follicle stem cells because they play a critical role in governing hair growth and maintaining the epidermis. One of the major obstacles in stem cells research is to identify and localize their existence.

Typically, some kind of marker cells are used to distinguish hair follicle stem cells from other transient amplifying cells. The idea is to introduce certain marker cells into hair follicles and evaluate the changes in existing cells once they intereact with the marker cells. Given the slow cycling nature of stem cells compared to other cells, scientists expect that stem cells would react differently compared to other cells when interact with certain marker cells.  


Today, the most popular approach to identify keratinocyte stem cells relies heavily  on the slow cycling nature of stem cells. Scientists expect that the slow cycling nature of stem cells would allow them to be detected experimentally as the "label retaining cells" (LRCs). In general, when it comes to hair research, most scientific reference to LRCs are indeed referring to the presumed hair follicle stem cells that we are hoping to identify.

According to Dr. Lavker (University of Pennsylvania) and Dr. Sun (New York University), scientists have been able to prove that all or substantially all of the LRCs were confined exclusively to the bulge, "specifically the part of the outer root sheath marking the lowest point of the upper, permanent portion of the follicle."

Studies in both mice and humans further confirmed that LRCs were largely observed in the bulge region of the hair follicle and not the epidermis.

In addition, cells within the follicular bulge seem to have satisfied all the criteria for keratinocyte stem cells:

1) they have a higher proliferative capacity than other cells.
2) they have a more primitive or embryonic ultrastructure
3) they all reside in a very well protected biological / molecular environment
4) they seem to be a major target of chemical carcinogens

Some have suggested that the keratinocyte stem cells at the follicular bulge may be bipotent in that they can give rise to not only the hair follicle, but the epidermis as well.

The first of the 6-part series will be about research on hair follicle stem cells and you will notice that most scientists at the conference are still trying to confirm the localization of hair follicle stem cells. There are numerous references to the use of different marker cells to identify the stem cells.

If you are interested in technical details, we strongly recommend downloading the PDF file in order to have a full appreciation of the presentations that were featured at the conference. If you are interested in summaries or synopsis, in plain English, of the various presentations, the 6-part series should be sufficient for your purpose

Caution: All scientific and technical information are presented as we understand it in plain simple English. HairSite does not guarantee that all information presented herein are accurate and up-to-date. Our editorial contents only serve as a link between the consumers and the medical or scientific communities involved in hair loss.  

Please use  HM forum for discussions on this topic.

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