Follicular Cell Implantation is a key development component of the hair cloning process where it primarily involves in extracting, growing and then reinserting back the cultured cells into your scalp. This procedure can be said to be the epitome of hair cloning and it's one of the most promising method that can possibly provide you with an unlimited supply of hair follicles.
Although researchers still have not fully break all the puzzles in this procedure, trials and advanced experiments are ongoing as we speak and the initial results might blow the rest of your hair away!
The Story of the Hair Seeds
The rapid progress in stem cells research opens up a diversity of possibilities in medical and health improvements like a more thorough understanding of how your cells multiply, behave and most importantly, how do we manipulate and replicate them.
When Dolly the sheep was first cloned from somatic cells, the world's view on the limitations of cloning science has literally changed overnight. 
Not soon after, all sorts of news about cloning are spreading everywhere like wildfire. That is when a new era of medical science had emerged.
At the present moment, the possibilities of cloning are limitless where we receive new breakthroughs in stem cell technology on a regular basis. Human cloning, genetic alternations, pre-programmed babies and even cloned organs that were once fiction are now becoming a near reality. Even a new type of 'banking' system for storing stem cells for future 'needs' are booming everywhere. Do you have an account with them?
Hair Cloning itself holds just a miniscule fraction in the entire grand scale of things and Follicular Cell Implantation is just a part of it while new ideas and methods of hair cloning are popping up consistently. At the meantime, let's look at what the researchers have kept in store for us in the near future about this technology.
When the Losing Stops
Hair loss, major or trivial happens generally to everyone. Whether it's related to
There is no way to avoid it as in other stuff in life. Even if you might not be facing hair loss, over time your hair follicles will deteriorate and die due to the aging process. Yet with all the available treatments today, up to now there isn't a way to permanently solve hair loss due to the simple fact that once your hair follicles die, it's lost forever.
That Will Soon Change in the VERY Near Future
For a very long time scientists were trying to find a way to provide an endless supply of hair follicles for implantation but trying to clone hair follicles were really tough because of the complexity of the organ.(It's like trying to clone a liver!)
Luckily for us, two really brilliant scientists, Dr. Amanda Reynolds and Dr. Johoda had made tremendous progress in solving this issue. Instead of cloning the hair follicle directly, they have found that the dermal sheath cells located in the lower part of the hair follicle can be isolated from the rest of the cells and then injected into the skin of another person to promote the formation of new follicles! It seems that these cells can communicate and stimulate nearby hair follicles to grow into terminal hairs regardless of the original size of the hair! Although this is not cloning, it's a big stepping stone for the basis of Follicular Cell Implantation.
You might want to look at their paper in Trans-Gender Induction of Hair Follicles here.
Follicular Cell Implantation Basics
The basic idea in Follicular Cell Implantation is actually very straight forward indeed. Scientists have found that the dermal papilla and the inner dermal sheath cells located at the bottom of the hair bulb in each hair follicle play a very crucial role in the hair cycling process where they
- Regulate the hair growth cycle
- Determine the hairs shaft's size and growth
- Mediate the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the hair
More recently, they also found that these cells are also to have the ability to
- Stimulate neighboring hair follicles to grow
- Send signals to nearby cells to form new hair follicles
Therefore, needless to say, if you can get a load of these cells, there is a real possibility to grow new hair follicles or at least heal the crippled ones and that what's the scientists did. They multiplied it.
A Simple Step by Step Process
Simply speaking, Follicular Cell Implantation can be divided into a few basic steps. One basic example is..
- The surgeon extracts the dermal papilla cells located at the bottom of the hair bulb from 10-100 healthy hair follicles.
- The cells are then multiplied or cultured in the lab and where a few hundred extracted cells can become millions within a couple of months.
- Upon reaching the desired figure, these cells are then injected back into the scalp.
To produce a new hair follicle, two crucial cells must be present. The first type are the dermal papilla cells and the other are the Keratinocytes cells. These are the major cells found below the epidermis that produce keratin, a tough, protective protein that makes up the majority of the structure of the skin, hair, and nails. Without the combination of both cells, forming hair follicles would be impossible.
If you are interested to know more about cell culturing, do take a peek at this article here.
Different Implantation Techniques
Generally there are a few mix and match ways to go with this procedure and scientists are still studying each benefits. The procedures are
- Implanting the Dermal Papilla Cells Directly
This Follicular Cell Implantation process involves directly injection the cultured cells into the dermis (beneath the skin) in hoping that the injected cells will send signals to nearby skin cells to form new hair follicles. This process is also known as follicular neo genesis. The other way is to directly inject cells to nearby miniaturized hair follicles like those facing pattern baldness to stimulate the hair follicles to grow back to their original sizes. - Implanting Partially Developed Hair Follicles
Another method that is under consideration which will probably ensure a more successful attempt for hair follicle formation is to culture the dermal papilla cells together with the Keratinocytes cells first before implanting it to the scalp. This way will also provide surgeons with overall better control of the hair's orientation and placement as well as making sure of acceptable hair follicle development. There is a variant of the technique where the dermal papilla cells are developed with the help of a synthetic or biological 'mold' to enable the hair follicle to develop properly before inserting into the scalp.
Either way, research labs in the UK and Japan are undergoing clinical trials and fine-tuning the process to see which methods are the best and most successful for use.
Perfecting Follicular Cell Transplantation
I am sure by now you must have realized the potential of this procedure and what it can do in the near future for you to get back your hair, PERMANENTLY.
Although I would say Follicular Cell Implantation might be the best possible solution for hair loss in the near future, it will still take a matter of time for researchers to break some of the common tribulations and obstacles that are still in the way. After that, you might finally have a chance to say good bye hair loss!
Chapter 3 - Existing Problems in Hair Cloning?
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All information here are written by a hair loss sufferer based on experience and self research.
It's best to seek a medical professional regarding any health problems.
