New Delhi: Scientists have come up with a new way to promote and activate stem cells in the hair follicles for better hair growth.
Potential stem cell therapy can help you promote hair growth and keep it healthy.
Hair follicle stem cells are long-lived cells in the hair follicle; they are present in the skin and produce hair throughout a person’s lifetime.
They are “quiescent,” meaning they are normally inactive, but they quickly activate during a new hair cycle, which is when new hair growth occurs.
The quiescence of hair follicle stem cells is regulated by many factors. In certain cases they fail to activate, which is what causes hair loss.
Researchers from University of California, Los Angeles in the US found that hair follicle stem cell metabolism is different from other cells of the skin. Cellular metabolism involves the breakdown of the nutrients needed for cells to divide, make energy and respond to their environment.
The process of metabolism uses enzymes that alter these nutrients to produce “metabolites.”
As hair follicle stem cells consume the nutrient glucose – a form of sugar – from the bloodstream, they process the glucose to eventually produce a metabolite called pyruvate.
The cells then can either send pyruvate to their mitochondria – the part of the cell that creates energy – or can convert pyruvate into another metabolite called lactate.
“Our observations about hair follicle stem cell metabolism prompted us to examine whether genetically diminishing the entry of pyruvate into the mitochondria would force hair follicle stem cells to make more lactate, and if that would activate the cells and grow hair more quickly,” said Heather Christofk, an associate professor at UCLA.
The research team first blocked the production of lactate genetically in mice and showed that this prevented hair follicle stem cell activation.
Conversely, they increased lactate production genetically in the mice and this accelerated hair follicle stem cell activation, increasing the hair cycle.
“Before this, no one knew that increasing or decreasing the lactate would have an effect on hair follicle stem cells,” said William Lowry, a professor at the UCLA.
“Once we saw how altering lactate production in the mice influenced hair growth, it led us to look for potential drugs that could be applied to the skin and have the same effect,” said Lowry.
The team identified two drugs that, when applied to the skin of mice, influenced hair follicle stem cells in distinct ways to promote lactate production.
(With PTI inputs)
