Clinical trial starting using Jahoda's method !

[southern]

Macroenvironmental regulation of hair cycling and collective regeneration behavior

http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~cmchuong/2014Macroenv.pdf

More articles on this site:

http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~cmchuong/publications.html

[southern]

Scalable production of controllable dermal papilla spheroids on PVA surfaces and the effects of spheroid size on hair follicle regeneration.:

http://www.researchgate.net/publicat...e_regeneration

Therapeutic strategy for hair regeneration: hair cycle activation, niche environment modulation, wound-induced follicle neogenesis, and stem cell engineering.

http://www.researchgate.net/publicat...ll_engineering

http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~cmchuong/2013Ther.pdf

[southern]

Back in 2009...

http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=51928&CtNode=436

An assistant professor at National Taiwan University’s biomedical engineering institute has utilized tissue-engineering technology to offer new hope in the fight against baldness.

Professor Lin Sung-jan took 10 hair follicles from rodents and cultivated 8 to 10 million dermal papilla cells in vitro in 20 days. Using aggregates of between 3 and 5 million dermal papilla cells, he mixed these with rodent skin cells and transplanted them onto bare rodent skin, which sprouted hair.

Lin’s findings were published in the internationally renowned tissue-engineering journal, Biomedical Materials, and also earned him Academia Sinica’s 2009 Junior Researcher Award June 1. The award committee felt his use of biomedical materials to develop micro-tissues capable of insertion and verification via animal testing had value for clinical applications in inducing and facilitating hair follicle regeneration.

Discovering that dermal papilla cells function to send signals and implement instructions, Lin developed biomaterial that can assemble and produce such cells. He also developed a bio-reaction device for use in mass-producing micro-tissues to induce hair follicle regeneration.

Lin has also taken human hair follicles and conducted similar experiments, successfully growing hair on the skin of rodents. In future, he hopes to be able to control the size and color of hair grown.

“Hair that is too thick or thin will not do,” Lin said. “If hair color can be controlled, it will be possible to transplant white or even blond hair.”

[robodoc]

The big question:

Is this another 2-5 year false promise with the eventual and likely turn around time of 15 years or what?

Really, it has to be 2-5yr deal here in the U.S. Maybe a trip to Taiwan will be the answer?

[Sogeking]

The big question:

Is this another 2-5 year false promise with the eventual and likely turn around time of 15 years or what?

Honestly we would have to now, at what exact stage the clinical trials are at. Their funding, which has to be substantial if they enrolled 400 people for phase 1( if it is phase 1), and what is the clinical testing cycle for new drug on treatment in Taiwan.

But Jahodas methods are the end game, they are the "cure". So even if it ain't the full cure(22% gene expression in Jahoda/Christiano method) they at least started with clinical trials. If they improve the method the safety ahs already been proven, and if Lin's method ends up in upping the gene expression then thats it.

[James7]

The big question:

Is this another 2-5 year false promise with the eventual and likely turn around time of 15 years or what?

This is an observational study, not a clinical trial with the 3 phases (interventional).

[hellouser]

The big question:

Is this another 2-5 year false promise with the eventual and likely turn around time of 15 years or what?

[southern]

Makes me feel optimistic that there could be other awesome things out there that have evaded our detection.

I felt exactly the same way...

[Pentarou]

Wow, nice finds Desmond !! This looks very interesting indeed ! And amazing how they stayed under the radar so long, these guys easily belong at the top.

Makes me feel optimistic that there could be other awesome things out there that have evaded our detection.

[Arashi]

Wow, nice finds Desmond !! This looks very interesting indeed ! And amazing how they stayed under the radar so long, these guys easily belong at the top.

[Rog]

Hauwei

Would love to see that article if possible.

[robodoc]

Sung-Jan Lin is the Clinical Trial principal Investigator

This is a patent under his name from 2013:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8492112.PN.&OS=PN/8492112&RS=PN/8492112

"Disclosed is a method for the manufacture of microtissues, comprising the steps of: providing a biomaterial substrate; simultaneously seeding a plurality of dermal papilla (DP) cells and keratinocytes on the substrate surface with a predetermined ratio and cellular density; co-culturing for a predetermined period; and carrying the keratinocytes to the substrate surface by the dermal papilla cells, aggregating and finally form a plurality of keratinocyte-dermal papilla cell microtissues, wherein the dermal papilla cells are located in a center of the microtissue and the keratinocytes are sorted to a surface of the microtissue, and the keratinocytes are adult keratinocytes. The method can help to simply and economize the procedures for production of folliculoid microtissues with high-throughput. Once microtissues are transplanted to skin of subject, hair follicles can be regenerated."

"The inventor of the present invention has previously reported that EVAL, containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains, is a unique polymer that is able to enhance the self-assembly for DP cells into spheroidal microtissues that are able to induce HF morphogenesis"

So they are using Jahoda's method combined with Lin's.

[huawei]

1) Most of their work is based on maintaining adult hair follicle (HF) Keratinocyte gene expression close to 100% with little emphasis on the gene expression of DP cells! Have they carried out gene analysis studies on DP cells or not? I'm still trying to read their paper in full but it remains elusive.

Are you trying to find the full version of the paper titled:

"High-throughput reconstitution of epithelial-mesenchymal interaction in folliculoid microtissues by biomaterial-facilitated self-assembly of dissociated heterotypic adult cells."

Or was this statement more so about trying to read between the lines of the paper to discover relevant information or implications?

If its the former I can get you a copy with ease.

Edit: While I have not read through the entire thread I can also acquire this article as well, it may be of interest if it has not been posted yet.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23289545

[southern]

AntiBag Dave, Desmond and Arashi, what do think of the email idea?

[southern]

Here's what I could dig out of my text books regarding scaffolds composed of polymers (i.e. EVAL):

Introduction

Scaffolds composed of natural polymers have been essential components of tissue engineering since its inception. Polymers are currently used in a wide range of biomedical applications, including applications in which the polymer remains in intimate contact with cells and tissues for prolonged periods. Many of these polymer materials have been tested for tissue engineering applications as well....

Implanting Polymer Scaffolds

The context of cell-polymer interactions in vivo (after implantation) is inherently complex due to the presence of blood, interstitial fluids and multiple cell types in various activation states.

Almost all implanted polymers induce a unique inflammatory response termed the FOREIGN BODY RESPONSE (FBR). The FBR can be divided into several overlapping phases:

- Non-specific protein adsorption
- Inflammatory cell recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages
- Macrophage fusion to form FOREIGN BODY GIANT CELLS (FBGC)
- Involvement of fibroblasts and endothelial cells

The end result of FBR is the formation of FBGC directly on the polymer surface, and the subsequent encapsulation of the implant by a fibrous capsule that is largely avascular. A number of implantation techniques in rodents and larger animals (typically, rabbits, pigs or sheep) have been adopted for the investigation of cell-polymer interactions. Most notably, short-term studies for the analysis of protein adsorption, inflammatory cell recruitment and adhesion, and macrophage fusion most often employ either:

- Intraperitoneal implantation (IP)
- Subcutaneous (SC) cage-implantation --> also known as the wound chamber model

FBGC can then lead to other responses such as inflammation, fibrosis and angiogenesis. There is still much to learn in this area, but it is clear that both the implant material and the physiology of the implant site are important variables.

a) Inflammation
The implantation of polymers through surgical incision means that an initial component of FBR involves a wound-healing like response and it is reasonable to assume that the early inflammatory response is mediated, at least in part, by wound-derived factors. Analysis of several implantation models has shown neutrophils (early) and monocyte/macrophages (late) to be the primary inflammatory cells involved.

FBGC can cause damage to polymer surfaces through their degradative and phagocytic activities and thus pose a significant obstacle to the successful application of polymer-based biomaterials.

b) Fibrosis and Angiogenesis
Unlike wound-healing, the resolution of polymer- associated inflammatory response is characterised by the excessive deposition of highly organised collagenous matrix and a striking paucity of blood vessels. The collagenous capsule can vary in thickness but usually exceeds 100 mcq. The dense and organised nature of the collagen fibres in the capsule could play a role in limiting blood vessel formation.

c) Myofibroblasts
An additional concern with polymer capsulation is the presence of contractile cells, myofibroblasts, which can cause contraction of collagenous capsule and misshape or damage polymer implants. For example, silicone-based breast implants have been shown to be susceptible to this phenomenon!

__________________________________________________ _____________

SO I guess we need to know if they've conducted in vivo studies to analyse if the body tolerates EVAL or not!
__________________________________________________ _____________

We should also try and find out if EVAL is biodegradable in the body? Here's a bit of information on biodegradable scaffolds:

BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS

Biodegradable polymers slowly degrade and then dissolve following implantation. This feature may be important for many tissue-engineering applications, since the polymer will disappear as functional tissue regenerates. For this reason, interactions of cells with a variety of biodegradable polymers have been studied.

Biodegradable polymers may provide an additional level of control over cell interactions: during polymer degradation, the surface of the polymer is constantly renewed, providing a dynamic substrate for cell attachment and growth.

These cells are mass generated and then cultivated on an EVAL membrane to form microtisssues, in which an EVAL membrane is biocompatible with no harm to human health.
I remembered reading that on the patent. But no further details as far as I know.
Other interesting I just realized. Their " Scalable production of controllable dermal papilla spheroids on PVA surfaces and the effects of spheroid size on hair follicle regeneration" paper was cited in the Jahoda and Christiano study (#50)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7OWE10mRMtBWndvb05DWG90Ulk/edit?usp=sharing