What ever happen to the Chinese solving the dermal papilla culture issue?

[Renee]

Controllable production of transplantable adult human high-passage dermal papilla spheroids using 3D Matrigel culture

We have succeeded in culturing human dermal papilla (DP) cells spheroids and developed a three-dimensional Matrigel (basement membrane matrix) culture technique that can enhance and restores DP cells unique characteristics in vitro.

When 10000 DP cells were cultured on the 96 well plates pre-coated with Matrigel for 5 days, both passage 2 and passage 8 DP cells formed spheroidal microtissues with a diameter of 150-250 μm in an aggregative and proliferative manner. We transferred and re-cultured these DP spheroids onto commercial plates. Cells within DP spheres could disaggregate and migrate out, which was similar to primary DP. Moreover, we examined the expression of several genes and proteins associated with hair follicle inductivity of DP cells, such as NCAM, Versican and α-SMA, and confirmed that their expression level was elevated in the spheres compared with the dissociated DP cells. To examine hair-inducing ability of DP spheres, hair germinal matrix cells and DP spheres were mixed and cultured on Matrigel. Unlike the dissociated DP cells and hair germinal matrix cells co-cultured in two dimensions, hair germinal matrix cells can differentiate into hair-like fibers under the induction of the DP spheres made from the high passage cells (passage 8) in vitro.

We are the first to show that passage 3 human hair germinal matrix cells differentiate into hair-like fiber in the presence of human DP spheroids.

These results suggest that three-dimensional Matrigel culture technique is an ideal culture model for forming DP spheroids and that sphere formation partially models the intact DP, resulting in hair induction, even by high passage DP cells.

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs....TEA.2013.0547

[joachim]

yes, good question.

this news popped up a few months after the last hair congress in korea, if i remember. there even is a big thread in this forum somewhere a year ago.

it was seen as the last solved puzzle for hair regeneration, but we never heard anything back from them. it's possible that they already have all they need to multiply DP cells in millions without losing gene expression but nobody was able to confirm it.

if we only could contact those guys to find out more.

but i have the feeling this achievement will get lost forever, and nobody catches on this to bring things a step forward.

so, the cure is maybe already out there, but nobody gives a shit about it. it will stay a research paper only, forever...

[Renee]

Here is the contact info:

Zhi Qi Hu, MD, PhD
Department of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery
Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University
1838 North Guangzhou AV
Guangzhou 510515
China
E-mail: doctorhzq@hotmail.com