© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 97
T. Tsuji (ed.), Organ Regeneration Based on Developmental Biology,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3768-9_6
Chapter 6
Functional Hair Follicle Regeneration
Koh-ei Toyoshima and Takashi Tsuji
Abstract The hair organ plays biologically important roles in thermoregulation,
physical insulation, waterproofing, tactile sensation, protection, camouflage, and
social communication. Only the hair follicle, which is induced by reciprocal epithe-
lial and mesenchymal interactions in the skin field, has various organ-inductive
potential stem cells and their niches and undergoes repeated organogenesis after
birth through interactions between epithelial stem cells in the bulge region and der-
mal papillae. Hair loss disorders such as androgenetic alopecia are psychologically
distressing and have negative effects on the quality of life. Therefore, the develop-
ment of hair follicle regeneration therapy is expected to be a next-generation organ
replacement regenerative therapy. Previously, many studies have reported techno-
logical approaches to reproduce de novo folliculogenesis. Recently, we successfully
developed fully functional hair regeneration via intracutaneous transplantation of a
bioengineered hair follicle germ, which was reconstituted from adult hair follicle-
derived stem cells using our developed organ germ method. Here, we review hair
follicle regeneration studies and discuss the potential of our functional hair follicle
regeneration for the realization of future hair follicle organ regenerative therapy.
Keywords Hair follicle • Organ replacement regenerative therapy • Bioengineered
hair follicle • Organ germ method
K.-e. Toyoshima
Department Regenerative Medicine, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery,
Kitasato University School of Medicine, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan
RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
Organ Technologies Inc., Tokyo 101-0048, Japan
e-mail: [email protected]
T. Tsuji (*)
Laboratory for Organ Regeneration, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology,
2-2-3, Minatojima-mimamimschi, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan
e-mail: [email protected]