Large-scale preparation of hair follicle germs and its application for hair regenerative medicine

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14489
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biofunction/Bioprocess
• Research Institution: Yokohama National University
• Principal Investigator: Fukuda Junji 横浜国立大学, 大学院工学研究院, 教授 (80431675)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 片岡 健 岡山理科大学, 理学部, 教授 (10293317) ; 鈴木 敦 横浜国立大学, 大学院工学研究院, 准教授 (60467058)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 毛髪 / 再生医療 / 毛包 / 毛包原基 / マイクロデバイス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we developed a large-scale preparation approach based on self-organization of two types of cells and demonstrated that this approach is beneficial for hair regenerative medicine. We mixed two types of hair follicle derived cells and let them form an aggregate. They are initially randomly distributed in the aggregate but then spontaneously separated each other during 3 days of culture, resulting in the formation of hair follicle germs. Furthermore, we developed a microdevice in which a large number of hair follicle germs were formed through this self-organization. We demonstrated that this approach is applicable to human hair follicle derived cells as a proof of concept.

Free Research Field

生物工学