Vitamin-Boosted Stem Cells Prove Vital in Baldness Cure
The new study, reported in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine team, has found that VD3, a super-active form of Vitamin D, has the ability to boost stem cells to enhance and maintain their ability to induce hair growth. The study builds on the success of the previous studies that demonstrate how dermal papilla cells (DPCs) can stimulate epithelial stem cells to become hair.
The study was led by Kotaro Yoshimura, M.D and Noriyuki Aoi, M.D., both of the University of Tokyo (UT) School of Medicine. Scientists from UT, Osaka University and the Japan Science and Technology Agency were part of the investigation.
Researchers feel the study may contribute to the development of a cell-based therapy for hair regeneration. It shows the potential impact of vitamin D to boost the capacity of certain cells in the skin to form hair.
"We had already discovered how VD3 increases the transforming growth factor TGF-B2 and alkali-phosphatase activity - two essential features of hair-inducing DPCs. This time we focused on VD3's therapeutic potency and values for hair regeneration," said Kotaro Yoshimura, M.D. "The results suggest that it may be useful in expanding human DPCs with good quality, and help establish a DPC transplantation therapy for growing hair."
After running more tests on how VD3 affected another crucial element for hair growth called Wnt10b gene expression, they collected DPCs from volunteers who had undergone facelifts, incubated the DPCs with VD3 and then grafted them onto hairless skin samples taken from rats.
"We found that treating the dermal papilla cells with VD3 significantly enhanced the growth of new hair over that of the control group," Dr. Aoi said. "We also observed a better rate of maturation of the follicles. In other words, the hair grew thicker and lasted longer."
Stem cell treatment is also being used to treat alopecia areata. Earlier this year Biostem announced a new stem cell treatment to treat alopecia areata. "The Biostem Method" includes a combination of the patients own blood, utilization of growth factors, laser treatments for bio-photo stimulation, and a nutraceutical designed to stimulate hair follicle growth.
HairFear
