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In search of a new stem cell therapy for burn victims, a group of Swiss and Scottish scientists have made a startling and completely unexpected discovery. By taking stem cells from the thymus and transplanting them into the developing skin of rats, they were transformed into new follicle cells capable of growing hair. The transformation was also achieved without any genetic switch-up in the cells, implying that the same cell type could make the same leap in other organs.
"These cells really change track, expressing different genes and becoming more potent," says lead researcher Professor Yann Barrandon, who runs the stem cell lab at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. His team's findings have been published in Nature.
Naturally occurring hair follicle stem cells support hair for three weeks, but these transplanted cells worked for up to a year producing hair--pointing to a possible cure for baldness. The thymus plays a key role in spurring the immune system. But the scientists were even more enthusiastic about the potential of a new cell that can be transformed by its environment.
"It's not just that a latent capacity is triggered or uncovered when these stem cells come in to contact with skin," says Clare Blackburn, of the University of Edinburgh's Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine, going on to echo Barrandon on the cells' potency. "It will be interesting to see whether microenvironments other than skin have a similar effect."
- get more from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine's release
- here's the report from PhysOrg
- read the Irish Times' story
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