A group of RIKEN in Kobe announced that they have elucidated the mechanism by which organs called "hair follicles" that produce hair are formed by analyzing mouse cells in detail.
It is attracting attention as it can be expected to be used in regenerative medicine.
Hair is produced from a tubular organ called a "hair follicle" that extends from the pores to the back, but it was not known in detail how the hair follicle is shaped during growth.
The group at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Biosciences used a special microscope to photograph and analyze the formation of mouse hair follicles on a cell-by-cell basis.
As a result, four types of cells are initially arranged concentrically on flat skin, but each type of cell grows gradually into the depths of the skin, making it look like a telescopic telescope. It was found that a tubular hair follicle was formed to stretch the hair.
Furthermore, it was confirmed for the first time that one type of cell in this concentric circle becomes a special cell called "hair follicle stem cell" that plays an important role in hair growth.
Hironobu Fujiwara, team leader of the research group, said, "This result may lead to the development of technology to generate and increase hair follicle stem cells from iPS cells, etc. It cannot be used for future research on regenerative medicine. Is it? "
This achievement has been published in the electronic version of the international scientific journal "Nature".