Regenerative Medicine and Hair Loss: How Hair Follicle Culture has Advanced our Understanding of Treatment Options for Androgenetic Alopecia

Abstract

Many of the current drug therapies for androgenetic alopecia were discovered serendipitously, with hair growth observed as an off-target effect when drugs were used to treat a different disorder. Subsequently, several studies using cultured cells have enabled identification of hair growth modulators with similar properties to the currently available drugs, which may also provide clinical benefit. In situations where the current therapeutics do not work, follicular unit transplantation is an alternative surgical option. More recently, the concept of follicular cell implantation, or hair follicle neogenesis, has been attempted, exploiting the inherent properties of cultured hair follicle cells to induce de novo hair growth in balding scalp. In this review, we discuss both the advances in cell culture techniques that have led to a wider range of potential therapeutics to promote hair growth, in addition to detailing current knowledge on follicular cell implantation, and the challenges in making this approach a reality.

KEYWORDS::

• androgenetic alopecia
• cell culture
• dermal papilla
• finasteride
• follicular cell implantation
• hair follicle
• male pattern baldness
• minoxidil
• transplantation

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors are grateful for support from the Dermatology Foundation (Career Development Award to CA Higgins) and NYSTAR and NYSTEM (to AM Christiano). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful for support from the Dermatology Foundation (Career Development Award to CA Higgins) and NYSTAR and NYSTEM (to AM Christiano). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.