Scientists stimulate hair regrowth on damaged skin

For the first time, researchers at New York University's Faculty of Medicine (NYU) have managed to restore hair regrowth to skin that has been severely damaged. Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications, not only explains why hair and hair struggle to grow back normally on injured skin, but could also help in the development of new treatments for, for example, injured or burned people.

Using the Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway

In laboratory mice with damaged skin following a wound, the scientists' experiments revealed the key role of fibroblasts in hair regrowth. Present in the connective tissue, these cells have the characteristic of secreting collagen, the structural protein responsible for the shape, flexibility and resistance of the skin and hair.

To stimulate hair regrowth, researchers have activated the Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway (SHH), an expression mechanism that cells use to communicate with each other. This signaling pathway is widely used, especially during the early stages of human growth in the uterus, when hair follicles form. It can not, however, express itself in the injured skin, which would explain, according to the researchers, why hair or hair do not grow back on scarred skin after an injury or surgery.

Mayumi Ito, cell biologist at NYU's Faculty of Medicine and lead author of the study, said Sonic Hedgehog signaling fibroblast stimulation could "unleash previously unseen hair growth in wound healing." ".

Hair regrowth noticed within 4 weeks

The researcher points out that so far scientists have badumed that as part of the healing process, collagen build-up in damaged skin is the cause of her inability to regrow hair. "We now know that this is a signaling problem in very active cells as we develop in the uterus, but less in mature skin cells with age," he says. she.

The results of the experiment attest to this since regrowth of the hairs could be observed within four weeks following the cutaneous wound in all the mice treated by Sonic Hedgehog signaling of the fibroblasts. The structures of the root and stem of the hair began to appear after nine weeks.

The goal of this method is not only to stimulate hair regrowth on the damaged skin of people who have had surgery, injuries or burns. Initially, researchers hope that this discovery can allow mature skin suffering from alopecia to return to their embryonic state in order to grow new hair follicles.