Dermal papilla cell culture under hypoxia

Hair loss is most frequently associated with aging or hormonal imbalances, which result in follicular stem cells not being able to regenerate hair follicles (HFs). Many patients take medication or have hair transplantation to resolve hair loss, but there are limitations such as cost, side effects, and so on. Hair transplantation is a common way to treat severe hair loss. However, hair transplantation is based on redistribution of hair follicles without any new follicle formation. Lots of researchers have focused on developing methods to regenerate new hair follicles. Reduced HFs results in progressive hair thinning/loss, and is associated with a failure to maintain the right number of dermal papilla cells (DPC), which specifies hair size, shape and lifecycle. DPCs play a key role in hair regeneration. Therefore, tremendous efforts have been made to promote DPCs’ ability to induce new hair growth. This study looked at how to use hypoxia, a cue that regulates many processes in the body, to improve culture conditions (how the cells are grown in the lab) for DPCs, to help produce DPCs in vitro (in the lab) and maintain their hair inductivity in vivo (in people).