01.02.19
By stirring crosstalk among skin cells that form the roots of hair, scientists reported that they have regrown hair strands on damaged skin.
Led by researchers at NYU School of Medicine and published in the journal Nature Communications, the study examined the effect of distinct signaling pathways in damaged skin of laboratory mice. Experiments focused on fibroblasts that secrete collagen, the structural protein most responsible for maintaining the shape and strength of skin and hair.
The findings better explain why hair does not normally grow on wounded skin, and may help in the search for better drugs to restore hair growth, according to the study’s authors.
As part of their investigation, researchers activated the sonic hedgehog signaling pathway used by cells to communicate with each other. The pathway is known to be very active during the early stages of human growth in the womb, when hair follicles are formed, but is otherwise stalled in wounded skin in healthy adults. Researchers say this may explain why hair follicles fail to grow in skin replaced after injury or surgery.
“Our results show that stimulating fibroblasts through the sonic hedgehog pathway can trigger hair growth not previously seen in wound healing,” said study senior investigator and cell biologist Mayumi Ito, PhD, an associate professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone Health.
According to Ito, regrowing hair on damaged skin is an unmet need in medicine because of the disfigurement suffered by thousands from trauma, burns and other injuries. However, she said her more immediate goal is to signal mature skin to revert back to its embryonic state so that it can grow new hair follicles, not just on wounded skin, but also on people who have gone bald from aging.
Led by researchers at NYU School of Medicine and published in the journal Nature Communications, the study examined the effect of distinct signaling pathways in damaged skin of laboratory mice. Experiments focused on fibroblasts that secrete collagen, the structural protein most responsible for maintaining the shape and strength of skin and hair.
The findings better explain why hair does not normally grow on wounded skin, and may help in the search for better drugs to restore hair growth, according to the study’s authors.
As part of their investigation, researchers activated the sonic hedgehog signaling pathway used by cells to communicate with each other. The pathway is known to be very active during the early stages of human growth in the womb, when hair follicles are formed, but is otherwise stalled in wounded skin in healthy adults. Researchers say this may explain why hair follicles fail to grow in skin replaced after injury or surgery.
“Our results show that stimulating fibroblasts through the sonic hedgehog pathway can trigger hair growth not previously seen in wound healing,” said study senior investigator and cell biologist Mayumi Ito, PhD, an associate professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone Health.
According to Ito, regrowing hair on damaged skin is an unmet need in medicine because of the disfigurement suffered by thousands from trauma, burns and other injuries. However, she said her more immediate goal is to signal mature skin to revert back to its embryonic state so that it can grow new hair follicles, not just on wounded skin, but also on people who have gone bald from aging.