Hair Size is Controlled by Dermal Papilla Cell numbers
Monday, March 25th, 2013
Hair stem cell and its role in future of hair restoration has been a hot topic in recent years. Hair multiplication also referred to as hair cloning is a process of culturing cells responsible for development of hair follicles. This is necessarily done by generating new hair in refined laboratory conditions.. The concept is that then those hairs manufactured hairs could then be transplanted for hair restoration purposes. It is easy to understand how success in the area of Hair Multiplication would be another quantum leap in hair restoration. People affected by patterned baldness could have the stem cells of hairs from their permanent zone multiplied for hair transplant.
A new article was published in e-Publication Development by Chi W. et al. This article reviews a critical stage of hair development regarding which one of the two hair stem cells is most important for size and shape of new hair.
Dermal Papilla (DP)
Dermal papilla (DP) develops a new hair. The DP is located in the hair bulb. Dermal papilla’s interaction with stem cells from the bulge area leads to generation of a new hair. Laboratory tests on mice indicates that the number of DP cells in the follicle correlates with the size and shape of the hair produced .
The study of mouse model allowed for selective ablation of DP cells in-vivo. The result of the study demonstrates that
- DP cell number dictates the size and shape of the hair.
- DP cells help develop hairs of different sizes or types.
- The number of DP cells plays a critical role in the size of hair shaft that will get developed.
- DP cells play an important role in activation of stem cells leading to the formation of new hair shafts.
These scientists also observed that when the number of DP cells fall below a critical threshold, follicles fail to develop new hairs. Based on this new development, it is easy to understand the mechanism of degeneration of hair in hair loss situations in relation to a drop in the number of DP cells.
Reference:
Chi W, Wu E, Morgan BA. Dermal papilla cell number specifies hair size, shape and cycling and its reduction causes follicular decline. Development. 2013 Mar 13, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23487317




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