P-16   IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF MELANOCYTES IN PLUCKED HAIR FOLLICLES

D-Y Lee, J-H Lee, J-M Yang, E-S Lee, Department of Dermatology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea.

Plucked hair follicles have been used as an easy-to-obtain tissue for the diagnosis of various skin disorders as well as for the study of hair proteins. Recently it has been shown that keratinocytes derived from the outer root sheath of plucked hair follicles can be grown in culture and successfully transplanted as epithelium. In normal hair follicles, melanocytes exist within hair matrix and outer root sheath together with keratinocytes. The melanocytes in hair follicles may be a source of repigmentation in vitiligo. In this study, we observed the existence of melanocytes in plucked hair follicles to evaluate whether plucked hair follicle can be a source of melanocytes. On longitudinal section of plucked hair follicles immunohistochemical stainings such as Mel-5, HMB-45, tyrosinase and vimentin revealed that several melanocytes were found within hair matrix, but melanocytes were not found within outer root sheath contrary to normal hair follicles in the scalp. These findings suggest melanocytes within hair matrix in plucked hair follicles may be a source of melanocytes, although melanocytes within outer root sheath were absent. Based on the findings, we are now preparing to culture melanocytes in plucked hair follicles.