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Contractile smooth muscle cells derived from hair-follicle stem cells - PubMed

  • ️Tue Jan 01 2008

. 2008 Jul 1;79(1):24-33.

doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvn059. Epub 2008 Mar 3.

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Contractile smooth muscle cells derived from hair-follicle stem cells

Jin Yu Liu et al. Cardiovasc Res. 2008.

Abstract

Aims: We hypothesized that hair-follicle stem cells can differentiate toward smooth contractile muscle cells, providing an autologous cell source for cardiovascular tissue regeneration.

Methods and results: Smooth muscle progenitor cells (SMPCs) were obtained from ovine hair follicles using a tissue-specific promoter and fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Hair-follicle smooth muscle progenitor cells (HF-SMPCs) expressed several markers of vascular smooth muscle including alpha-actin, calponin, myosin heavy chain (MHC), caldesmon, smoothelin, and SM22. HF-SMPCs were highly proliferative and showed high clonogenic potential without any signs of chromosomal abnormalities as evidenced by karyotype analysis. HF-SMPCs compacted fibrin hydrogels to a similar extent as vascular smooth muscle cells from ovine umbilical veins (V-SMCs), indicating the development of the force-generating machinery. In addition, cylindrical tissue equivalents prepared with HF-SMPCs displayed significant contractility in response to vasoactive agonists including KCl and the thromboxane A2 mimetic U46619, suggesting that these cells had developed receptor and non-receptor-mediated pathways of contractility. Finally, transforming growth factor-beta1 promoted differentiation of HF-SMPCs toward a mature SMC phenotype as suggested by increased expression of MHC and enhanced matrix compaction.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that hair follicles may be an easily accessible, autologous, and rich source of functional SMPC for cardiovascular tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

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Comment in

  • One more reason to save your hair.

    Scholz D, Ergun S. Scholz D, et al. Cardiovasc Res. 2008 Jul 1;79(1):1-2. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvn117. Epub 2008 May 9. Cardiovasc Res. 2008. PMID: 18469025 No abstract available.

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