Model Hair

Crew cuts, bobs, dreadlocks and Afros; there’s endless ways to style your hair. Whichever look you pick, at the root of it the same process plays out. Hair grows out from hair follicles in the scalp. These follicles pass through different phases, including active growth, anagen, and massive cell death, catagen. Researchers grew human hair follicles in the lab as mini-organs (pictured) to investigate these processes. They found that during anagen considerable amounts of autophagy (red) – the controlled destruction of cells – occurs, as revealed by fluorescent microscopy. Preventing autophagy, by reducing levels of a gene vital to this process, hastens the onset of catagen. Conversely, applying the key ingredients of an anti-hair loss product enhances autophagy and prolongs anagen. This mini-organ system highlights the importance of autophagy in hair growth but also provides a useful model for studying autophagy, whose function in the human body is poorly understood.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Chiara Parodi and Jonathan A. Hardman, and colleagues
• Department of Drug Discovery and Development, Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Genoa, Italy and The Centre for Dermatology Research, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Biology, March 2018