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In a study, skin scars began to behave more like uninjured skin after they were treated with hair follicle transplants. The scarred skin harbored new cells and blood vessels, remodeled collagen to restore healthy patterns, and even expressed genes found in healthy unscarred skin. Scar tissue in the skin lacks hair, sweat glands, blood vessels and nerves, which are vital for regulating body temperature and detecting pain and other sensations. Scarring can also impair movement as well as potentially cause discomfort and emotional distress. Hairy skin heals faster and scars less than non-hairy skin—and hair transplants had previously been shown...

On New Year’s Day in 1988, Abdullah Ali, an Iraqi businessman who had been living in London for eight years, joined three compatriots for dinner at a restaurant called Cleopatra in Notting Hill.The next morning, he was taken ill with flu-like symptoms and was admitted to hospital. There his condition rapidly deteriorated — his hair fell out, he developed excruciating skin and joint pain, and paralysis and respiratory failure began to set in. Fifteen days later he was dead — but not before he had begun to wonder whether something had been added to his vodka. He was right: the...

Generally speaking, the American public is well accustomed to the concept of tissue and organ transplantation, as stories of life-saving heart and kidney transplants, or American Red Cross blood drives collecting blood and platelets for transfusions have become commonplace. Since these procedures typically require a transfer of tissue from one patient to another, physicians must be careful to choose well-matched donors to avoid rejection by the recipient’s immune system. But what about other specialized tissues that can be affected by disease, such as those of the eye? A recent study published in the journal Stem Cells by Winston Kao and...

Adult stem cells found in the bulge of hair follicles may provide an alternative to embryonic stem cells, say researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.   Like embryonic stem cells, these epidermal neural crest stem cells have a high degree of plasticity, can be isolated at high levels of purity, and can be expanded in culture, the researchers said.And, similar to other types of adult stem cells, the epidermal neural crest stem cells can be harvested through a minimally invasive procedure. This means that it may be possible to use a patient's own hair as source for stem...

FINDINGS Stem cells found in hair follicles of mice can develop into nerve cells and might be useful in medical treatment, researchers said yesterday. They found that stem cells taken from the follicles of mouse whiskers matured into neurons and other neural cells known as astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, as well as into skin cells, smooth muscle cells, and pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. The finding, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers another potential source of master cells, which scientists hope may provide new tissue and organs for transplants. Robert Hoffman at AntiCancer Inc. in San Diego...

Making Brain Cells Scientists have announced they've found a way to coax adult hair follicle stem cells into becoming brain cells. Hair-brained? Scientists at AntiCancer, Inc. of San Diego have coaxed adult stem cells in mice into turning into neurons, the nerve cells of the brain. Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors say, the results of their work suggests a new "source of undifferentiated multi-potent stem cells." Stem cells are different from other cells because they can change into specialized cells the body needs, the body maintain and repair itself. Many scientists are working to...

Human Hair Follicle Stem CellsCategory: Dermatology NewsArticle Date: 06 Jan 2006 In a study appearing in the January 4, 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Jonathan Vogel and colleagues from the National Cancer Institute successfully isolated and characterized genes expressed by human hair follicle stem cells. The isolation, cultivation, and propagation of these stem cells are important for tissue-engineering approaches to treating disorders of the hair and skin. Stem cells in the skin and hair follicles are the ultimate source of cells that regenerate the skin and the growth of new hairs. Vogel and colleagues used sophisticated...

Video (movie will open in a separate window)Choose your format: Quicktime Realmedia Plan on wearing green this St. Patrick's Day? Bet you can't top a mouse with green skin. As this ScienCentral News video explains, this mouse is green for a very serious reason. It's invaluable to researchers learning how to grow nerve cells. Knitting New NeuronsEven for scientists, it's not every day you see a hairless mouse glowing bright green under a fluorescent light. And for scientists searching for stem cells that could grow into nerve or brain cells, seeing such a mouse meant finding a possible whole...