Baldness Breakthrough: microRNA Stimulates Hair Growth in Aging Follicles

 MicroRNA Stimulates Hair Growth in Aging Follicles

TOPICS: Northwestern University HairMicroRNAStem Cells By NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Researchers from Northwestern Medicine discovered that the rigidity of aging Hair Growth follicle stem cells prevents hair development. They found that relaxing these cells with the help of the small RNA miR-205 increases hair growth in mice.

Future studies will examine the possibility of miR-205 promoting human when applied topically.

microRNA Stimulates Hair Growth in Aging Follicles

Baldness Breakthrough: microRNA Stimulates Hair Growth in Aging Follicles

By softening stiff hair follicle stem cells with a microRNA, hair can regrow.

  • Controlling cell dynamics causes mice to grow hair.
  • The next stage will be to test whether microRNA delivered via nanoparticles promotes hair growth.
  • Possibility of human hair growth

According to a recent Northwestern Medicine study, hair follicle stem cells also get stiff with age, making it difficult to promote hair growth. This is similar to how people’s joints can become stiff and make it harder for them to move around.

However, the researchers found that if the stem cells in the  follicle are relaxed, they are more likely to produce.

 

Northwestern researchers figured out a technique to reactivate hair growth in those stem cells by softening them. Increasing the amount of the short RNA miR-205, which relaxes the cells’ stiffness, can make stem cells softer, according to a recent mouse study published in the journal PNAS.

After researchers altered the genetic code, the stem cells produced more miR-205, which promoted hair growth in both young and old mice.

The Paul E. Steiner Research Professor of Pathology and Professor of Dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Rui Yi, who is the corresponding author, stated that “they began to grow hair in ten days.

Hair Growth in Aging Follicles

” This is not the generation of brand-new stem cells. To grow hair, we are stimulating the now-present stem cells.

Sometimes our stem cells can still produce hair, but this is rare.
“Our research reveals the potential of controlling cell dynamics to stimulate.

Since microRNA may be delivered directly into the skin via nanoparticles, the next step is to ascertain whether miR-205 administered topically can first promote hair development in mice.


If successful, we will create tests to see if this microRNA might potentially encourage hair development in humans.

Genetically modified mouse models were used for this inquiry.

The researchers employed cutting-edge microscopy methods like atomic force microscopy and two-photon microscopy to detect stiffness and observe cell reactions in vivo animals.

Reference: “MicroRNA-205 promotes hair regeneration by modulating mechanical properties of hair follicle stem cells” by Jingjing Wang, Yuheng Fu, Wenmao Huang, Ritusree Biswas, Avinanda Banerjee, Joshua A.

Broussard, Zhihai Zhao, Dongmei Wang, Glen Bjerke, Srikala Raghavan, Jie Yan, Kathleen J. Green and Rui Yi, 22 May 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

 

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