Skin equivalents in basic and applied research: Development of human hair equivalents

Abstract

In this study, three novel organotypic human folliculoid assays for basic and applied hair research were developed. Two organotypic "sandwich" systems consist of a pseudodermis (collagen I mixed with and contracted by human interfollicular dermal fibroblasts) on which one of two upper layers is placed: either a mixture of Matrigel™ and follicular dermal papilla fibroblasts (DPC), with outer root sheath keratinocytes (ORSK) layered on the top ("layered sandwich" system), or a mixture of Matrigel™, DPC and ORSK ("mixed sandwich" system). Third, the patented new technique generating human folliculoid microspheres (HFM), consisting of human DPC and ORSK within an extracellular matrix was established. Studying a number of different markers (e.g. proliferation, apoptosis, cytokeratin- 6, versican), it was shown that these folliculoid systems, cultured under well-defined conditions retain several essential epithelial-mesenchymal interactions characteristic for human scalp hair follicle. Selected, recognized hair growthmodulatory agents modulate these parameters in a manner that suggests that all developed organotypic systems allow the standardized pre-clinical assessment of test agents on relevant human hair growth markers under substantially simplified in vitro conditions that approximate the in vivo situation....

Hledání účinnějších léků na léčbu běžných poruch růstu vlasů zůstává hlavní prioritou, a to jak pro klinickou dermatologii a tak i pro průmysl. Růst lidských vlasů je v současné době možné studovat in vitro pomocí organicky kultivovaných vlasových folikulů. V této studii byly vyvinuty tři nové organo-typové folikulové testy s užitím v základním a aplikovaném výzkumu vlasů.