First Study to Convert Adult Human Cells to Hair-Follicle-Generating Stem Cells

[HairBane]

News from Cotsarelis and University of Pennsylvania http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_...es/2014/01/xu/

Study in question: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/14...comms4071.html

[hellouser]

Both good and bad news:

“When a person loses hair, they lose both types of cells.” Xu explains. “We have solved one major problem, the epithelial component of the hair follicle. We need to figure out a way to also make new dermal papillae cells, and no one has figured that part out yet.”

What’s more, the process Xu used to create iPSCs involves genetic modification of human cells with genes encoding oncogenic proteins and so needs more refinement. Still, he notes that stem-cell researchers are developing more workarounds, including strategies using only chemical agents.

Good because they're half way. Bad because they're only half way.

[BDDFreak]

Even after they figure it out, wouldn't they still need to go through clinical trials to be FDA approved?

[Arashi]

This doesn't bring us much closer to our goal on the one hand: epethelial cells weren't the problem and could already be expanded. But hopefully this is useful in doing it for DP cells. Cause if THAT works, then hairloss is a thing of the past (as proven by Tsuji for example)

[Sogeking]

This doesn't bring us much closer to our goal on the one hand: epethelial cells weren't the problem and could already be expanded. But hopefully this is useful in doing it for DP cells. Cause if THAT works, then hairloss is a thing of the past (as proven by Tsuji for example)

When I read that I was thinking to myself if they could grow these epithelial cells, and then add those DP cells (Aderans) or Dermal sheath cup cells (Replicel) to the mix.
But:
a) They are still refining the procedure let alone starting clinical trials
b) If they approve they would have to combine it with procedure of others which patented, I believe they would have to combined while preparing the i.e. Dermal sheath cup cells.

Sad thing is this like 15 years away from fruition.

[Arashi]

When I read that I was thinking to myself if they could grow these epithelial cells, and then add those DP cells (Aderans) or Dermal sheath cup cells (Replicel) to the mix.
But:
a) They are still refining the procedure let alone starting clinical trials
b) If they approve they would have to combine it with procedure of others which patented, I believe they would have to combined while preparing the i.e. Dermal sheath cup cells.

Sad thing is this like 15 years away from fruition.

Not sure what you mean with point b ? If they can generate DP cells this way, then hairloss is cured. Yeah sure, they'd need to go to trials but I'm sure there will be clinics in non western countries which would offer it way before the Western world would.

[HairBane]

Strange that they're simultaneously working on what seems to be an entirely different approach to the technology they licensed to Follica using a wounding procedure and topical formulas to induce follicular neogenesis.

[Sogeking]

Not sure what you mean with point b ? If they can generate DP cells this way, then hairloss is cured. Yeah sure, they'd need to go to trials but I'm sure there will be clinics in non western countries which would offer it way before the Western world would.

Actually I read the article about it (not the study itself) on phys.org today. They said that they had made the epithelial cells, but for a full hair follicle they still need to make DP cells from usual stem cells. The b point I proposed is actually a shortcut, and basically it might help to improve the efficiency of Replicel and Aderans treatments.

This is the excerpt from the aticle:

That said, iPSC-derived epithelial stem cells are not yet ready for use in human subjects, Xu adds. First, a hair follicle contains epithelial cells—a cell type that lines the body's vessels and cavities – as well as a specific kind of adult stem cell called dermal papillae. Xu and his team mixed iPSC-derived EpSCs and mouse dermal cells to generate hair follicles to achieve the growth of the follicles.

"When a person loses hair, they lose both types of cells." Xu explains. "We have solved one major problem, the epithelial component of the hair follicle. We need to figure out a way to also make new dermal papillae cells, and no one has figured that part out yet."

Also they actually mixed mouse dermal papillae cells so my b point actually makes some sense doesn't it?


And this is the link to said article:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-adult-human-cells-hair-follicle-generating-stem.html

[beetee]

Also worth noting, the test involved grafting the human epithelial stem cells mixed with mouse cells and grafting this on to the backs of mice. As many of you who follow these things know, they often get different results when they try to replicate studies that used mice with human subjects.

That being said, it's always good to see more work from cotsarelis and the Perelman school as this is real science and therefore more valuable and reliable than most of what you see from the fly by night private companies.

[hellouser]

When I read that I was thinking to myself if they could grow these epithelial cells, and then add those DP cells (Aderans) or Dermal sheath cup cells (Replicel) to the mix.
But:
a) They are still refining the procedure let alone starting clinical trials
b) If they approve they would have to combine it with procedure of others which patented, I believe they would have to combined while preparing the i.e. Dermal sheath cup cells.

Sad thing is this like 15 years away from fruition.

How do you draw '15 years' from fruition? Why is this arbitrary number always thrown at development of something that has no definite end result pathway? There's no way to gauge any of it other than the bullshit required YEARS from the FDA before a commercial product... thats for sure, but nobody should be putting up with the FDA for stem cell treatments, this sort of thing needs to be moved over to a forward thinking nation like Japan where there isn't this much red tape.

[Arashi]

Actually I read the article about it (not the study itself) on phys.org today. They said that they had made the epithelial cells, but for a full hair follicle they still need to make DP cells from usual stem cells. The b point I proposed is actually a shortcut, and basically it might help to improve the efficiency of Replicel and Aderans treatments.

This is the excerpt from the aticle:


Also they actually mixed mouse dermal papillae cells so my b point actually makes some sense doesn't it?


And this is the link to said article:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-0...ting-stem.html

I'm not sure what you're saying. It has been proven already (by Tsuji for example), that a combination of epethelial cells + DP cells generates hair. Epethelial cells could already be cultured. And now they even have an alternative source for epethelial cells: induction from iPSC cells. That still leaves us with the DP cells problem. They either need to expand DP cells (which Jahoda partly succeeded at last year, unfortunately his method wasnt good enough yet), or they need to generate them from iPS cells. Once they succeed at either of those venues, then we're done (except of course for clinical trials but again, I'm sure there will be alternatives in the non western world by then, for the daredevils).

Let the negative people repeat a thousand times that we're never going to succeed: anyone who is following all the progress knows that we're DAMN close now.

[sdsurfin]

why

I'm not understanding why they need to create DP cells from scratch. Why can't you simply harvest them and multiply them? Isn't that what christiano and jahoda did? It seems like we're very close, but different teams just need to cooperate and put the whole puzzle together and start testing this stuff on people.

[BoSox]

I was excited to read the articles on yahoo, came here to see if anybody noticed them too.. and all I see is "15 years away."

This forum is worse than hair loss. We're closer to a cure, EVEN closer than yesterday. How is this not good news?

[Arashi]

I was excited to read the articles on yahoo, came here to see if anybody noticed them too.. and all I see is "15 years away."

This forum is worse than hair loss. We're closer to a cure, EVEN closer than yesterday.

Yeah it's because people don't understand. They put all of their hopes in scammers like Nigam and Pilox and totally ignore what the REAL researchers are doing (cause they dont understand their publications/articles). And when they finally realize they believed in a scam, they give up all hope and start telling everybody we will always be 15 years away. While the real researchers are making huge progress and are really closing in now.

I wouldnt be suprised if they crack the last and final part of this problem this year: either Jahoda (or other groups) improves his DP culturing method OR they find a way to induce DP cells from iPS cells. And we're done (except for clinical trials of course).

[Dan26]

1) Generate DP cells
2a) Prove safe
2b) Clinical Trials

I think people are assuming it will take another 5-10 years to solve the DP cell problem than another 10 on top of that to get it to market.

I'm optimistic and would say at this rate under 5 years till they 'cure' hairloss in the lab and with the recent change of regulations in Japan it should not take too long for it to be available there so long as it's safe.

Team Tokyo, Jahoda and Cots should all be working together...