Cells, growth factors and biomaterials used in tissue engineering for hair follicles regeneration

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Alopecia is a common and distressing medical condition that has affected a majority of people worldwide, which leads to great effects on the quality of life and self-esteem. Numerous treatments had been used to cure alopecia, including hair growth stimulants, herbal products, and hair transplantation. However, these treatments have their side effects, such as hypertrichosis, edema, and even cardiovascular adverse effects, which lead to the urgent requirement to explore a new hair-follicle (HF) regeneration approach. Tissue engineering could be the potential way for HF regeneration by simulating the epithelial-mesenchymal interaction and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. This review summarized the potential cells that are used in tissue engineering, commonly used tissue engineering techniques, and most importantly, the biomaterials that have been applied for in vitro three-dimensional cell culture or in vivo co-transplantation in HF regeneration. The literature shows that advances in this field toward functional HF development have progressively increased. Although the clinical application of biomaterial co-transplantation for HF regeneration still faces various challenges, numerous studies have proved that this is a promising direction that could be achieved in the future.

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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