In Vitro Hair Follicle Engineering

Abstract

Hair follicle transplantation is often used in the treatment of androgenetic alopecia. However, the only source of hair follicles is from human donors themselves, which limits the application of this approach. One possible solution is to reconstitute hair follicle from dissociated cells. Hydrogels composed of cross-linked polymer networks are commonly used as 3D scaffolds in tissue engineering due to their high water content. In our study, we fabricated an array of microwells with center islets that mimic the architecture of human hair follicles using soft lithography. Dermal and epithelial cells were seeded in different compartments of the microstructural hydrogels to mimic mesenchymal and epithelial compartmentalization in native hair follicles. We demonstrated that these compartmentalized microstructures support cell proliferation and cell survival over 14 days. In addition, cell differentiation and cell-cell interactions were detected. This hydrogel micromold provides a potentially useful tool for engineering 3D hair follicle-mimicking complex cultures in vitro.