Application of mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow and umbilical cord in human hair multiplication.

[BACKGROUND] The methods currently used for treating alopecia have some limitations. The drug treatment is so temporary that medication discontinuance may progress depilation immediately. The number of hair transplantation restricts because total transplantable hair number is no increase. To overcome these problems, researchers have attempted the in vitro culturing of hair follicle cells and implanting these cells in the treatment area.

[OBJECTIVES] In the present study, culture-expanded mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that do not possess aggregative activity were used to produce self-aggregated cell-aggregated spheroidal dermal papilla like tissues (DPLTs) with the aid of a special culture condition in vitro, and hair bulb structure inductive capacity pertinent to the aggregative activity was then evaluated. Then hair inducing activity of self-aggregated DPLTs employing MSCs was tested in athymic mice.

[METHODS] We isolated and cultivated MSCs from bone marrow and umbilical cord in vitro. After propagated MSCs underwent preconditioning in dermal papilla forming medium (DPFM), then subcultured MSCs formed self-aggregated DPLTs. We compared real human scalp dermal papilla cells (hDPCs) with DPLTs employing DPCs, DPLTs employing hBM-MSCs and DPLTs employing hUC-MSCs.

[RESULTS] Light microscopy and immunohistochemical staining were used to confirm that reconstructed DPLTs generated by this procedure had the size, shape, and expression of protein similar to actual DP.

[CONCLUSIONS] The DPLTs have the same hair bulb structure inductive ability as natural DPLTs in vitro. Transplanted DPLTs can induce new hair follicle in athymic mice. As a result, UC-MSCs and BM-MSCs may be an applicable and novel cell source for the generation of human hair cell therapy.