皮肤是动物抵御外界环境不利因素伤害的屏障，具有防止脱水、抵御感染、感觉、维持体温等一系列对动物生存至关重要的功能。毛囊干细胞是治疗皮肤损伤和皮肤病的重要干细胞来源。但是在临床应用之前，必须解决一个瓶颈问题——从尽可能少的皮肤组织中获得足量的毛囊干细胞，这对于大面积烧伤或烫伤病人来说尤其重要。
传统的毛囊干细胞分离方法是用流式细胞仪分选，但该方法有明显的缺陷，需要大量皮肤材料，并且得到的干细胞不易成活，克隆形成效率极低。因此，建立一种简单、高效的毛囊干细胞获取方法，成为亟待解决的难题。
4月24日，移植领域排名第一的杂志Cell Transplantation在线发表了中科院动物研究所段恩奎实验室在该领域的最新结果。该实验室成功建立了一种新的毛囊干细胞分离和纯化方法——器官培养法。此方法简单、易操作，只用一根大鼠触须毛囊就能获得大量可以长期传代培养的毛囊干细胞。该干细胞易于纯化，自我更新能力强，克隆形成效率高，表达毛囊干细胞的标志分子K14、α6-整合素、P63和K15。转染绿色荧光蛋白基因的这种毛囊干细胞与真皮成纤维细胞一起移植到裸鼠背部后，可观察到形成了新的表皮、毛囊和皮脂腺。
研究人员表示，该工作仍有待深入，即加强皮肤和毛囊重建方面的研究，在形成毛囊的基础上，进一步研究，使再生毛干达到正常毛干的水平。
该研究为毛囊干细胞走向临床提供了理论依据和主要技术支持，可望发展成为大面积皮肤损伤（如烧伤和烫伤等）和皮肤病治疗中重建皮肤和毛囊的重要方法。目前已申请相关专利两项。
该工作得到中国科学院战略性先导科技专项以及国家“发育与生殖研究”重大科学研究计划等基金的支持.(生物谷：Bioon.com)
doi:10.3727/096368912X640538
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Hair Follicle Stem Cells Derived from Single Rat Vibrissa via Organ Culture Reconstitute Hair Follicles in vivo
Shoubing Zhang, Huimin Hu, Huishan Zhang, Shuang Liu, Shu Liu, Ying Zhang, Xiaohua Lei, Lina Ning, Yujing Cao, and Enkui Duan
Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are potentially useful for the treatment of skin injuries and diseases. To achieve clinical application, a prerequisite must be accomplished: harvesting enough HFSCs from limited skin biopsy. The commonly-used sorting approach for isolating HFSCs, however, suffers from its intrinsic disadvantages such as requirement of large-scale skin biopsy. Here, we report an efficient organ culture method to isolate and expand rat HFSCs from limited skin biopsy and these HFSCs could reconstitute the epidermis and the hair follicles (HFs). 73% of cultured HFs formed hair follicle stem cell colonies from the bulge, and a single hair follicle provided all the HFSCs used in this research, demonstrating the high efficiency of this method. Quantitative RT-PCR and immunofluorescent staining results revealed that these stem cells obtained from the bulge highly expressed basal layer markers K14 and alpha-6 integrin, epithelial stem cell marker P63 and bulge stem cell marker K15. After long-term culture in vitro, GFPlabeled hair follicle stem cells formed new hair follicles, epidermis, and sebaceous glands following xenotransplantation into the back of nude mice. This study indicated that multipotent hair follicle stem cells could be efficiently harvested through organ culture from limited skin material—even a single hair follicle—and reconstitute hair follicles in vivo after long-term expansion culture, providing the basis for future clinical applications.
