在不遠(yuǎn)的將來,，臨床醫(yī)生不必東找西尋,，只需從患者頭上拔根頭發(fā),，就能進(jìn)行血管再生手術(shù),，因為通過生物工程，頭發(fā)毛囊中富含的干細(xì)胞可以發(fā)育成新的血管或皮膚組織,。美國紐約州立大學(xué)水牛城分校的科學(xué)家在3月份出版的《心血管研究》（Cardiovascular Research）雜志上發(fā)表了他們的最新研究成果,。
科學(xué)家已經(jīng)證明，頭發(fā)毛囊中含有大量的干細(xì)胞,，是最容易獲得的干細(xì)胞來源之一,。旁路手術(shù)（如心臟搭橋手術(shù)）對工程血管的迫切需求，促使科學(xué)家尋找利用干細(xì)胞來生成新的血管或皮膚組織的方法,。
水牛城分校工程與應(yīng)用科學(xué)院化學(xué)和生物工程系副教授斯特里爾斯·安德烈亞第斯博士是該論文的作者之一,。他的研究小組從綿羊頭發(fā)毛囊中分離出干細(xì)胞，并利用其中含有的平滑肌細(xì)胞,，使其發(fā)育成新的脈管系統(tǒng),。最近獲得的實驗數(shù)據(jù)表明，從人的頭發(fā)毛囊中提取出的干細(xì)胞可以分化成可收縮的平滑肌細(xì)胞,。安德烈亞第斯稱,，由頭發(fā)毛囊中的平滑肌祖細(xì)胞制備的工程血管具有擴張和收縮的性能，這使它成為心血管組織再生工程的理想材料,。這說明,，利用頭發(fā)毛囊中的干細(xì)胞來生成新的血管或皮膚組織的方法是切實可行的。
通過生物工程,，頭發(fā)毛囊中的細(xì)胞不僅可以長成新皮膚,，用于治療燒傷患者；也可以再生出心臟組織,，用于心臟病患者的血管移植,。另外，因為平滑肌細(xì)胞存在于包括膀胱,、腹腔,、腸胃和呼吸道等眾多的組織和器官中，所以,，這個新的易獲得的干細(xì)胞源也將有助于對這些器官損害的再生治療,。
安德烈亞第斯及其同事先前已經(jīng)利用來自骨髓間質(zhì)干細(xì)胞的平滑肌和內(nèi)皮細(xì)胞，制造出可以移植的功能性血管,。骨髓間質(zhì)干細(xì)胞的一個重要的優(yōu)點是,，它不會引發(fā)免疫反應(yīng),。而他們的初步實驗顯示，頭發(fā)毛囊中的干細(xì)胞與骨髓間質(zhì)干細(xì)胞相似,，這是令人激動的,。
安德烈亞第斯希望，利用頭發(fā)毛囊這個簡便易得,、高度增生的干細(xì)胞源,，科學(xué)家們可以獲得各類不同的細(xì)胞，并將它們用于廣大范圍的再生醫(yī)學(xué)研究,。（來源：科技日報 李學(xué)華）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
（Cardiovascular Research）,，doi:10.1093/cvr/cvn059，Jin Yu Liu, Hao Fan Peng and Stelios T. Andreadis
Contractile smooth muscle cells derived from hair-follicle stem cells
Jin Yu Liu1, Hao Fan Peng1 and Stelios T. Andreadis1,2,*
1 Bioengineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, 908 Furnas Hall, North Campus, Amherst, NY 14260, USA
2 Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA
* Corresponding author. Tel: +1 716 645 2911; fax: +1 716 645 3822. E-mail address: sandread@eng.buffalo.edu
Aims: We hypothesized that hair-follicle stem cells can differentiate toward smooth contractile muscle cells, providing an autologous cell source for cardiovascular tissue regeneration.
Methods and results: Smooth muscle progenitor cells (SMPCs) were obtained from ovine hair follicles using a tissue-specific promoter and fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Hair-follicle smooth muscle progenitor cells (HF-SMPCs) expressed several markers of vascular smooth muscle including -actin, calponin, myosin heavy chain (MHC), caldesmon, smoothelin, and SM22. HF-SMPCs were highly proliferative and showed high clonogenic potential without any signs of chromosomal abnormalities as evidenced by karyotype analysis. HF-SMPCs compacted fibrin hydrogels to a similar extent as vascular smooth muscle cells from ovine umbilical veins (V-SMCs), indicating the development of the force-generating machinery. In addition, cylindrical tissue equivalents prepared with HF-SMPCs displayed significant contractility in response to vasoactive agonists including KCl and the thromboxane A2 mimetic U46619 [GenBank] , suggesting that these cells had developed receptor and non-receptor-mediated pathways of contractility. Finally, transforming growth factor-β1 promoted differentiation of HF-SMPCs toward a mature SMC phenotype as suggested by increased expression of MHC and enhanced matrix compaction.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that hair follicles may be an easily accessible, autologous, and rich source of functional SMPC for cardiovascular tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
