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New anti-baldness treatment? Researchers create skin with hair from stem cells
Japanese researchers have succeeded in producing a piece of skin with sebaceous glands from mouse stem cells. The new findings could be an important step in the production of human skin. People with burns could possibly be better treated in the future.
Transplantation medicine has made great progress
Transplantation medicine has made great progress in recent years. For example, British scientists have managed to breed artificial noses and ears from stem cells. Last year, US researchers reported on an artificial rat paw, which they created using tissue engineering. Even teeth from human urine have already been bred. And now Japanese researchers have succeeded in creating a piece of skin with hair and sebaceous glands from mouse stem cells. By this invention could succeed in future skin for humans to breed.
Japanese researchers have created a piece of skin from the stem cells of mice with sebaceous glands and hair. By this invention it could succeed to breed skin for humans. (Image: Giovanni Cancemi / fotolia.com) Skin with all natural functions
As the scientists in the journal "Science Advances" report, this skin, unlike other biological skin replicas, can take over all natural functions after a transplantation to a mouse. The researchers led by Ryoji Takagi of the Tokyo University of Science had influenced induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) of mice in such a way that three-dimensional small tissue lumps developed in the laboratory, reports the news agency dpa. The team of scientists influenced the development of the so-called "embryoid bodies", whereupon skin cell layers, hair follicles and other skin structures formed.
Two weeks after the transplant grew hair
According to the researchers, the follicles, like normal hair, had sebaceous glands and muscle fibers. This tissue was then transplanted into the skin of other mice. Fourteen days later, the transplanted nude mice in this area grew hair. In addition, the tissue entered normal connections with the surrounding nerve and muscle fibers. It is said that there was no particular risk of stem cell research - tumor formation. Even after three months, the skin tissue was not affected. Takashi Tsuji, a scientist involved in the development, said in a statement from the Riken Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Japan: "With this new technique, we have successfully recreated the normal functions of the skin. We're getting closer to the dream of creating functioning transplant organs in the lab. "
First step in the production of human skin
According to the researchers, the next step would be to produce human skin using the same method. This could in future help patients suffering from burns, scars or hair loss. As reported by the news agency dpa, the head of the stem cell and cancer department at the German Cancer Research Center and director of the stem cell institute HI-STEM in Heidelberg, Andreas Trumpp, described the new research on mouse cells as fundamentally interesting. However, it can only be a first step in the production of human skin. "The work is an improvement on an old concept. However, you do not get any pure and complete skin, but rather small areas with especially many hair follicles, which stem from the stem cells, "says Trumpp. In addition, contrary to the researchers' statements, the study has not yet proven that everything really works for this new skin, such as the skin barrier or sweat and sebaceous glands. Although iPS cells can evolve to any cell type. However, possible replacement tissue for patients resulting from their own cells has the advantage that it is not rejected by the body. (Ad)