What are Hair Follicle Stem Cells?

• These stem cells live on the surface of organs and tissues---in this case, at the base of the hair follicle. With each growth cycle, the surface stem cells of the hair follicle divide to make new follicles. Research shows that these cells are pluripotent, meaning that they can affect various organs and tissues throughout the body.
  
  

How Hair Stem Cells Grow

• Hair follicles renew themselves through stem cell division and differentiation (a term used to describe when a less specialized cell becomes more specialized to perform a particular task---in this case, renewing the hair follicle). After a period of hair growth the cells rest. Then the process repeats. An activating signal is sent from a structure called the "dermal papilla" via protein signaling pathways to the "hair germ," a section at the bottom of the hair root, before the hair follicle can begin to grow.
  
  

Stem Cells are Flexible

• It's been shown that stem cells from elsewhere in the body can be used to create hair follicles. These cells must be given the correct signals, as mentioned previously. This flexibility suggests that stem cells can be transplanted from anywhere in the body to produce hair follicle cells, and since stem cells can differentiate to form other cells, skin cells around the hair follicle can also be more efficiently regenerated.
  
  

Not Only Good for Hair

• The flexibility is true in reverse: hair follicle stem cells are also able to create other types of cells, including blood vessels and skin cells. Furthermore, blood vessels prepared with the smooth muscle made from hair follicles may be good for cardiovascular regeneration, as well as other tissues and organs, including the respiratory tract and the bladder.
  
  

Benefits of Hair Stem Cell Growth

• Because of the ability of the stem cells to differentiate into various structures of the skin, including oil glands and hair follicles, there is less incidence of scarring. Also, because activated hair follicle stem cells are known to relocate elsewhere on the skin from their point of origin, new hair follicles will form on the bodies of subjects, expediting the recovery process.