Scientists Built Working Hair Follicles in a Lab. They Could Cure Baldness Forever.

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Treating hair loss is a multi-billion dollar business, so scientists (and many others) are interested in understanding how to generate functioning hair follicles in the lab.

A new study found that mesenchymal cells play a vital role in allowing hair bulbs to grow downward into the dermis.

By using a bioengineered seed made of these cells, a team successfully created hair follicles derived from mouse cells in the lab—and even transplanted those follicles.

Hair loss—whether caused by age-related baldness or autoimmune disorders like alopecia—impacts roughly one-fourth of the global population. And while modern culture is full of people who proudly rock the look , others would prefer to retain (or even regenerate) the luscious locks of their youth.

So, it’s no surprise that the race to treat baldness is big business, and declarations of hair loss cures can often feel like they're a dime a dozen. However, a new study published in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications has achieved a new milestone in retaining, and maybe even regrowing, hair follicles. The breakthrough—made by a team of Japanese researchers partly funded by the company OrganTech , which specializes in hair treatment technologies—focuses on a previously-overlooked type of cell to create functional hair follicles in a laboratory setting. The technique achieved follicle growth in mice, promising a path toward eventually restoring hair in humans.

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To create new follicles, researchers relied on two well-known cell types used in —epithelial stem cells and dermal papilla cells—but also introduced a third cell type, known as a mesenchymal cell. These mesenchymal cells form supportive tissues that help create a thickened patch called a hair placode, which is basically the origin of all hair follicles. While epithelial stem cells and dermal papilla cells alone can form the basic hair bulb, the mesenchymal cells (derived from hairy skin) are what generates the downgrowth (a.k.a. cells growing down into the dermis) needed to form a new hair follicle.

Using an organ germ method that they had developed over decades, the researchers constructed a “bioengineered hair follicle seed” (as Phys.org describes) layered with papilla cells, supporting cells, and stem cells at the top. After two weeks, the scientists noticed that the follicle had grown downward and created a visible hair shaft.

“This work defines a foundational cellular configuration for functional hair follicle regeneration,” Yoshio Shimo, CEO of OrganTech (who was not directly involved in the study), said in a press statement . “Beyond hair biology, it reinforces our broader strategy of organ-level regenerative medicine, where precisely orchestrated epithelial and mesenchymal interactions enable stable and functional tissue reconstruction.”

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While growing functioning hair follicles in the lab is an invaluable tool for analyzing organ regeneration more broadly—as well as providing a platform for experimental hair loss therapies without resorting to animal testing—the question remained: Can these follicles be successfully transplanted to a living organism? In the study, the authors state that once transplanted onto mice, the lab-grown follicles fully integrated into the nerve and muscle systems. For 68 days, the hair followed its natural cycle of loss and regrowth.

“Fully functional hair follicle regeneration can be achieved in organ culture in vitro through autonomous responses driven by the organization of three regionally compartmentalized cell populations,” the authors wrote. “[This provides] a broader understanding of the interactions among stem/progenitor cells, their niches, and accessory cells during organ development and regeneration, extending beyond the hair follicle.”