Hair Transplant

Podcast

Hair Transplant

Transcript

Giving the gift of hair. I'm Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Dr. Amanda Reynolds keeps a close eye on her husband's hair. Which is quite easy, because it's growing on her forearm.

She and her husband are researchers at the University of Durham in the U.K. Along with Columbia University dermatologist Angela Christiano, they've developed a new hair transplant technique.

Dr. Christiano says you can't transplant whole hair follicles from person to person. That's because the immune system rejects them. But her team discovered you can transplant the follicle's dermal sheath cells. These cells seem to be protected from the immune system.

Christiano:
"They implanted the cells into her arm and they were able to show that using just a few cells, that they were able to induce a brand new hair follicle to grow. And even more importantly, they were able to grow an actual hair from the newly made follicle."

While this is good news for bald men, it also has broader implications. If scientists can find other cells in the body that are immune-protected, they might use similar techniques to grow back other kinds of damaged tissue.

Christiano:
"And I think this is the first example of that, yes, you can take just a few cells from the body and get them to generate new organs."

She says the first target may be joint cartilage in patients with arthritis.

For the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I'm Bob Hirshon.

Making Sense of the Research

Much of science involves looking at tiny, seemingly inconsequential phenomena, and using them to learn about larger things too complex to study directly. Medicine, especially, benefits from such research.

In the Science Update you just heard, researchers were looking at how to transplant a type of cell that creates hair follicles. They've discovered that this particular cell can be transplanted from one person to another, and won't be attacked by the new person's immune system. Studying these hair cells may lead to new ways to transplant other cells that could help seriously ill people. It will also help scientists understand the human immune system (and, of course, it might help bald guys grow new hair).

You might think about the implications of this hair cell research. What sorts of experiments might scientists perform to advance the research? What might the results of those experiments be? A husband and wife team performed the experiment described above, using each other as guinea pigs. What are the limitations of such research? What other types of experiments might get around these limitations?

Now try to answer the following questions:

1. Why can’t you transplant whole hair follicles from person to person?
2. What part of the follicle can be transplanted from one person to another?
3. What happened when a few dermal sheath cells were transplanted from Dr. Reynold’s husband’s hair follicle to Dr. Reynold’s arm?
4. What are the broader implications of this research?

Going Further

To further your understanding of this topic, you can visit the Science NetLinks lesson entitled The Allergy Chronicles. This lesson focuses on how the immune system functions in a variety of allergic reactions.

A worthwhile site to visit is Stories of Discovery, part of the Snapshots of Science & Medicine website.