thanks
Thanks Dr. Gardner for your time and patience.
It seems to me that all the research teams are tackling hair growth one step at a time, as would be expected. I'm glad that you've cleared up the fact that no one has achieved full inductivity retention, or full gene expression (many on here didn't seem to understand the difference).
Two ideas as far as restoring characteristics is concerned
a) would it be of any use to not only combine cells, but also add growth factors such as fg9, or whatever compounds are implicated in the wnt pathway, which seems so crucial to follicle growth?
b) shape-wise, and from a designer's perspective, the sheath cup cells seem to be the most crucial as far as keeping everything in line, would it not make sense to start incorporating these into your mix right away? Maybe your epithelial cells are not "sticky" enough because they are only a second part of the puzzle, and you need all the pieces. Just a thought.
Another thing that I'm curious about is if any of you research teams have any solid ideas of why baldness actually happens in a broader sense. I know it is activated by androgens, but is it a matter of every cell in the scalp being programmed and implicated in these changes, or is it just the DP cells that have the receptors, and are sending signals to the environment- or is it the fat cells controlling the game? It seems a big effort has been made to understand the interaction between fat cells and DP cells, and I'm wondering if the key to retaining inductivity and maintaining hair growth doesn't lie in the interaction with the fat in the skin.
The epithelial, DP, and other hair follicle cells seem to be able to work together to create a follicle, but the fact that these follicles are small in vitro, and not the same as healthy hairs begs the question of what it is that they are missing. I doubt full gene expression is the complete answer, and my guess would be that they need to interact with not only epithelial cells, but also whatever other cells are in the scalp. are fat cells the answer? If so, can you guys begin to culture DP spheroids in a way where they are exposed to healthy fat cells?
I think you're right about it being hard to induce and maintain hair in a balding scalp, and thus I don't think any of the research will go anywhere as far as curing alopecia until the roots of the condition are understood (are they?) . A workaround solution could be the creation of follicles in engineered skin, and then the implantation of these follicles with new surrounding tissue, similar to current transplants.
Thanks Dr. Gardner for your time and patience.
It seems to me that all the research teams are tackling hair growth one step at a time, as would be expected. I'm glad that you've cleared up the fact that no one has achieved full inductivity retention, or full gene expression (many on here didn't seem to understand the difference).
Two ideas as far as restoring characteristics is concerned
a) would it be of any use to not only combine cells, but also add growth factors such as fg9, or whatever compounds are implicated in the wnt pathway, which seems so crucial to follicle growth?
b) shape-wise, and from a designer's perspective, the sheath cup cells seem to be the most crucial as far as keeping everything in line, would it not make sense to start incorporating these into your mix right away? Maybe your epithelial cells are not "sticky" enough because they are only a second part of the puzzle, and you need all the pieces. Just a thought.
Another thing that I'm curious about is if any of you research teams have any solid ideas of why baldness actually happens in a broader sense. I know it is activated by androgens, but is it a matter of every cell in the scalp being programmed and implicated in these changes, or is it just the DP cells that have the receptors, and are sending signals to the environment- or is it the fat cells controlling the game? It seems a big effort has been made to understand the interaction between fat cells and DP cells, and I'm wondering if the key to retaining inductivity and maintaining hair growth doesn't lie in the interaction with the fat in the skin.
The epithelial, DP, and other hair follicle cells seem to be able to work together to create a follicle, but the fact that these follicles are small in vitro, and not the same as healthy hairs begs the question of what it is that they are missing. I doubt full gene expression is the complete answer, and my guess would be that they need to interact with not only epithelial cells, but also whatever other cells are in the scalp. are fat cells the answer? If so, can you guys begin to culture DP spheroids in a way where they are exposed to healthy fat cells?
I think you're right about it being hard to induce and maintain hair in a balding scalp, and thus I don't think any of the research will go anywhere as far as curing alopecia until the roots of the condition are understood (are they?) . A workaround solution could be the creation of follicles in engineered skin, and then the implantation of these follicles with new surrounding tissue, similar to current transplants.
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