1.      Cultured human dermal papilla cells induce hair formation.
Jizeng Qiao, Erica Philips, Jeff Teumer; Intercytex Ltd, Woburn, MA, USA 

Follicular Cell Implantation (FCI) is an experimental cell therapy that uses cultured hair follicle cells to induce new hair formation for the treatment of hair loss. This treatment is based on the demonstration that adult dermal papilla cells (DPC) retain the hair inductive capacity they acquired during hair morphogenesis in the embryo. For FCI, hair inductive cells are isolated from scalp biopsies and then propagated in culture in order to provide enough cells to generate many new follicles from a few donor follicles. Following the culture expansion, the cells are implanted into the scalp where they induce the formation of new follicles. We have developed a process for FCI that uses a specialized culture medium for cell propagation that preserves the cells’ hair inductive capability while allowing significant expansion. In this study, we demonstrate hair induction by human DPC propagated in culture under this process. Using a novel graft assay, we show that DPC are required for hair formation and that the grafted DPC form the dermal papillae of induced hair follicles. The induced hair follicles are histologically normal and are able to grow and cycle for at least one year after grafting.