Hair Loss Cure 2020

Over the past few years, I have heard a lot about Dr. Pietro Gentile of Italy and his unique work in the hair loss field. His website and his Instagram have some interesting content. However, both are lacking relative to the higher quality of his numerous research papers.

Dr. Pietro Gentile and PRP

I originally learnt about Dr. Gentile via his collaboration with Dr. John Cole and Chiara Insalaco. In 2017, the three of them authored a paper comparing non-activated PRP versus activated PRP.

In my detailed post on the effectiveness of PRP for hair loss, I listed around 40 studies at the bottom. Of that total, 5 were authored by Dr. Gentile. On his website, the doctor has several pages devoted to PRP for hair loss and PRP for facial cosmetic treatments.

Hair Follicle Stem Cells

Micrograft Stem Cell Transplant Hair Growth Before After -- Pietro Gentile — Micrograft Stem Cell Hair Transplant Before and After in a 38-year old Female. Copyright © 2020 Pietro Gentile et al.

More interestingly, Dr. Pietro Gentile has in recent years published a number of papers on stem cells and hair growth. Most recently, in January 2020, he authored a paper titled “Autologous Micrografts from Scalp Tissue“. The conclusion was that micrografts containing autologous human hair follicle mesenchymal stem cells (HF-MSCs) could represent a safe and viable hair loss treatment.

The autologous micrografts of HFSCs were prepared using the doctor’s proprietary “Gentile Protocol”. Instead of harvesting hair follicle grafts like in a hair transplant, this process entails harvesting scalp tissue and associated hair follicle stem cells. I think that this tissue extraction can also be from outside the typical permanent hair donor zone. Dr. Gentile published the outline of his hair follicle stem cell isolation technique in an earlier paper from 2017.

Autologous Micrografts of Hair Follicle Stem Cells — Autologous Micrograft Injections of Hair Follicle Stem Cells (HFSCs) in a 41-year old Male with Androgenetic Alopecia. Before and After (58 Weeks). Copyright © 2020 Pietro Gentile et al.

Other Findings

in 2019, Dr. Gentile published a study on Adipose Tissue-Derived Hair Follicle Stem Cells (HD-AFSCs) improving hair growth and density. Make sure to read my past posts on adipose stem cells and hair growth. The doctor has also published a number of papers in the past on stromal vascular fraction, especially in regenerative plastic surgery and scar reduction applications.

In 2020, Dr. Gentile and his team found that a combination PRP + Microneedling + Laser treatment protocol led to great hair growth results. However, hard to tell which of the three made the most impact.

When it comes to hair cloning and tissue engineering, 3D culturing related research is booming. The 3D culturing of cells can occur via scaffold techniques or via scaffold free techniques such as 3D spheroids.

Update: March 11, 2022 — 3D bioprinting of a gelatin-alginate hydrogel for tissue-engineered hair follicle regeneration. This new approach from Chinese scientists permits the controllable formation of self-aggregating spheroids of dermal papilla cells. It also leads to the initiation of epidermal-mesenchymal interactions, which results in hair follicle formation in vivo.

Recent Studies on 3D Culturing of Hair Cells

Over the past few months, a number of studies have come out in relation to 3D culturing of hair cells (in particular, dermal papilla cells). Below, I list them from most recent to oldest.

July 27, 2020 — A new study from North Carolina State University compared 3D versus 2D cultured dermal papilla cells. The 3D dermal papilla cells in a scaffold performed best in regrowing hair. More interestingly, the scientists also studied microRNAs (miRNAs) in dermal exosomes from both the 2D and 3D DP cells. The team then identified one (miR-218-5p) in particular as a key promoter of hair growth. Per lead study investigator Dr. Ke Cheng, the best part is that MiRNAs can be developed into small molecule-based drugs, including creams. A much easier feat in comparison to cell growth, expansion and injection.

June 16, 2020 — Several people in the comments mentioned a new paper titled: “Generation of human hair follicle organoids in vitro and ex vivo by co-culture of primary human hair matrix keratinocytes and dermal papilla fibroblasts”. One of the co-authors of this paper is Dr. Ralf Paus. This experiment succeeded in human scalp skin and not just in mice (h/t reader “Joe”).

April 28, 2020 — Culturing human hair follicle dermal papilla cells in a 3D self-assembling peptide scaffold. The results of this study suggest a new potential 3D culture platform based on a self-assembling peptide scaffold called RAD16-I. This method successfully created hair follicle dermal papilla cells.

3D Culturing Hair Follicles — 3D Culturing of Hair Follicles and Dermal Papilla Cells. Source: Wiley Online Library.

April 15, 2020 — A new paper on reconstructed human skin with working hair follicles. Co-authors include the renowned Dr. Roland Lauster and Dr. Gerd Lindner.

The results section has an interesting part titled “Comparison of cultured neopapillae spheroids with scalp hair dermal papillae”. Several of the images of the 3D cultured hair follicles are shown on the right. Neopapillae spheroids were constructed from expanded self‐aggregating dermal papilla cells.

December 26, 2019 — Tissue engineering strategies for human hair follicle regeneration. This review analyzes the various research approaches being developed to tackle hair follicle bioengineering. Lots of discussion about 3D culturing, various types of scaffolding and dermal papilla trichogenicity. For the scientifically inclined readers, Table 1 is quite useful and I am pasting a small part of it here:

December 13, 2018 — An important paper with Dr. Angela Christiano, Dr. Colin Jahoda and Dr. Etienne Wang as co-authors. They created 3D-printed hair follicle molds using a biomimetic approach. I covered this work in detail in my 2018 post on biomimetic tissue engineering of hair follicles.

October 22, 2013

3D Spheroid Culturing of Dermal Papilla Cells

This week seems to be full of interesting developments, but the below news made all the global headlines.

Dr. Angela Christiano (Columbia University — US) and Dr. Colin Jahoda (Durham University — UK) just released their latest findings on hair follicle culturing. Their main discovery involves using a “hanging-drop” method of 3D spheroid culturing of dermal papilla cells. As opposed to a regular 2D petri dish culturing method that had failed in the past.

This new 3D method has shown significant success. However, it is still a years away from being able to be used in humans with consistent and safe results.

Media Coverage

For more, see this video with the hair follicle blessed Dr. Christiano. Edit: Per the Fox News video in the link at the bottom, it seems like she wears a wig and suffers from Alopecia Areata.

An audio interview from BBC with Dr. Colin Jahoda

And now some other links to their findings:

Article from BBC

Article from New Scientist

Article from NYtimes

Article with Video from Fox News