May
15,
2003
Hair
Follicle Neogenesis:
Q&A With
Professor Phil Moore of University of Western Sydney
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Prof. Phil Moore is the Director of Skin Technologies Research
Centre at University of Western Sydney. Forum members in HairSite
recently came across a certain "Hair Follicle Neogenesis"
research that was mentioned in the University's website. The
following is a synopsis of the University's Hair Follicle
Neogenesis program followed by by a short Q&A with Professor
Phil Moore.
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Reprint
from http://www.uws.edu.au/sfh/skintech/
2.
Hair Follicles of Skin.
The control of the human hair follicle function. Premature
loss of hair is a common cause for distress in men and
women, affecting quality of life and leading to
depression. Baldness results from a reduction in the
functional activity of the scalp hair follicle population.
The procedure currently available to ameliorate this
condition is hair transplantation. Surgery is expensive,
slow, regressive and requires anaesthesia. Our approach is
hair follicle induction. This is a different approach,
conflating what is known of the hair follicle with current
expertise in tissue engineering.
2.1 Subprogram: Hair follicle neogenesis.
We have developed microsurgical procedures to isolate
follicle inductive cells and culture methods to increase
their numbers in vitro. Grafting of cultured cells to
animal recipients have resulted in follicle neogenesis and
hair growth. Our research has reached the development
stage and have identified a commercial partner. The
objective is to use molecular biology, transgenesis and
bioreactor technology to launch cell therapies for hair
replacement in humans.
2.2 Subprogram: Follicle stem cell-derived proteins.
Identification of inductive cell signalling factors will
have profound implications for understanding hair thinning
and hair loss in humans and is likely to impact on the
production of animal fibres of commercial significance.
Cell culture provides the opportunity of isolating
inductive factors from cells and their medium. Simple
innovations have permitted us to isolate bioactive
molecules from follicle cells. This is the first time that
reactive proteins has been reported from these cells.
Since the inductive cells affect the rate of proliferation
of the adjacent hair-forming cells, it seems likely that
they will also affect hair growth. We plan to characterise
factors produced by inductive cells and confirm that their
expression alters hair fibre growth in model systems.
Publications:
Yardley, G., Relf, B., Isaacs, K., Lakshmanan, J.
Reinshagen, M. and Moore, G.P.M. (2000). Expression of
nerve growth factor mRNA and its translation products in
the anagen hair follicle. Exptl. Dermatol. 9, 283-289.
Moore, A.G. and Moore, G.P.M. (2001) Extracellular
matrix molecules and follicle morphogenesis in ovine skin.
Reproduction, Fertility and Development 13, 143-149.
Wynn, P., Kent, W., Gulati, S. and Moore, P. (2002).
The use of dietary sources of lipid protected from ruminal
degradation and skin enzyme inhibitors to manipulate wool
growth. Agric. Sci. 15, 31-34.
Thomson, M., McCarroll, J., Bond, J., Gordon-Thomson,
C., Williams, E. and Moore, G.P.M. (2002). Parathyroid
hormone-related peptide modulates signal pathways in skin
and hair follicle cells. Exp. Dermatol. (in press). |
HairSite's
Q&A With Professor Phil Moore
Does your organization have a name for the hair follicle
neogenesis
research that is
currently being developed ? Our group members currently
refer these types
of research as hair multiplication or hair cloning and we
are curious if
there is a special term that your organization uses for the
research.
We call it hair
follicle neogenesis. I am not exactly sure what hair cloning or
hair multiplication means in scientific terms, at least in the
context of generating new hair follicles. Cell cloning is a
possibility, and certainly would simplify procedures, if one could
circumvent the problem of immune rejection. But I gather Colin
Jahoda may have some handle on this.
It is mentioned in your website that your organization has
already
identified a
commercial partner for the follicle neogenesis research. Does
it mean that the
project is no longer open to funding from private
investors?
We are applying for
money (3 yr) through a Federal (AusIndustry) program for AUD 2-3M.
The commercial partner has to come up with half the money, if the
Feds decide to fund us. So it is all up in the air at present. If
the Feds do not fund for some reason (and there are 5
possibilities, of which only one is scientific merit), I will be
looking elsewhere. An external, ie non-Australian, commercial
partner would have to come up with the full amount (approx USD
1-2M) as the Fed program of paying half would not operate.
Ausindustry has a website if you want to delve further. the grant
we are applying for is called a Start Grant.
Has your organization started human trials using the follicle
neogenesis
technique? If
not, can you tell us when will human trials begin?
No. This is a
complicated process which has to be approved by our equivalent of
the FDA, called the TGA. We would not begin the process unless we
get the grant. It is written into our application and is a
significant early milestone.
Can you give us an estimate as to how soon the follicle
neogenesis
technique will be
available to the mass consumers ?
The grant is for 3
years to test the concept and methodologies. Tooling up for the
next phase would be a large task, big labs, SOPS, competent
trained staff etc. But I am confident that, if we could pull it
off, even partially, investment money would flow. I would guess,
based on the way these things tend to pan out, at least 5 years,
but my commercial partner is much more optimistic. We will see.
With respect to the research on Follicle stem cell-derived
proteins, can
you tell us if
human trials have already begun and when will this protein be
available as a
hair loss treatment to the mass consumers?
This work is still
at the basic research stage. If all goes well, I mean really well,
we would probably go for a gene therapy approach. The FDA-type
hurdles to this would be high, particularly since going bald is
not, of itself, a life-threatening condition.
RESEARCH
& HAIR MULTIPLICATION FORUM
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