Stem cells may treat baldness, burn victims

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Stem cells may treat baldness, burn victims

Researchers involved in mice study used adult cells

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5898628/

WASHINGTON - Master cells found deep inside hair follicles might offer

a new way to treat baldness and burn victims, U.S. researchers

reported Thursday.

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So far the cells have only been found in mice but there is no reason

to believe they do not also exist in humans, the team at the

Medical Institute and The Rockefeller University in New York

said.

The cells, known as stem cells, replace not only hair but also

stretches of skin and sebaceous glands, key to healthy skin and hair,

the researchers report in this week's issue of the journal Cell.

Researchers used adult stem cells

In this case the stem cells the researchers found are adult stem cells

-- immature master cells that retain the ability to change their

" type " to some degree.

They are different from stem cells taken from embryos, a more

controversial source.

" We've identified cells within skin that bear all the characteristics

of true stem cells -- the ability for self-renewal and the

multipotency required to differentiate into all lineages of epidermis

and hair, " said Elaine Fuchs, a cell biologist at Rockefeller who led

the study.

" This is the first work that indicates a single skin stem cell can

generate both epidermis and hair, even after propagation in the lab, "

she added.

Fuchs and colleagues now want to look for similar hair follicle stem

cells in people.

" With debate about the cells' multipotency within skin tissue settled,

we can now ask whether the stem cells can also make other cell types

in addition to hair and skin, " Rockefeller's Lowry said in a

statement.

" These results open the door to that possibility. "

The stem cells multiplied well in laboratory dishes and when the

researchers grafted the cells onto the backs of bald mice, they grew

tufts of hair and skin.

Previous work had used genetic manipulation to find the stem cells in

the mice but Fuchs and colleagues found a better way to identify the

scarce stem cells.

" We found that the surface of the skin stem cells was different than

the other cells of the skin, enabling us to use two different

antibodies to sort them out from the other skin cells, " said Lowry.

" No one had been able to isolate stem cells from the hair follicle in

this way before. "