Earlier this month, Germany’s TissUse entered into an agreement with Japan’s J.Hewitt that may have significant implications for hair loss sufferers. This agreement is in regards to the licensing and further development of the former’s Smart Hair Transplant (SHT) technology in Japan.

Fuji Maru from Japan first noticed this development and has covered it in detail here. He has been in contact with the company’s CEO Jon Knight.

TissUse also has a press release page where you can find the story towards the top for the time being.

Among the main scientists who developed TissUse’s technology is the well known Dr. Roland Lauster. He is now on the company’s advisory board. In the past, Dr. Gerd Lindner also used to be on that list.

As has been mentioned numerous times by myself and many others over the past several years, Japan’s government is heavily promoting regenerative medicine in the rapidly aging country. One of the main ways it is doing so is via speeding up the usually lengthy and expensive clinical trial process (which is common in most developed countries).

Smart Hair Transplants

In the case of SHT, the process is autologous in nature. So clinical trials are possibly not required, or will be fairly short in duration if required.

Smart hair transplants theoretically provide unlimited donor hair. By isolating cells from the dermal papilla and then culturing and multiplying them, this procedure supposedly forms neopapillae. According to TissUse:

“Neopapillae are the precursors of hair follicles which have been shown to grow hair follicles under controlled conditions in vitro. Each of these neopapilla has the potential to form a brand new hair follicle.”