Hair Loss News

Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center received a $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to use stem cells to engineer soft tissue, developing a process that should ultimately allow scientists to use a patient’s own stem cells to develop tissue for facial reconstruction following disfiguring injuries from war, cancer surgery or accidents.

The Columbia research team, led by Jeremy Mao, D.D.S., Ph.D., associate professor of dental medicine, aims to create long-lasting soft tissue implants from mesenchymal stem cells harvested from the patient’s own bone marrow or adipose tissue. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into bone, fat, cartilage and other types of cells.

“Our research has shown that mesenchymal stem cells can create tissue that is biocompatible with the host and that the continuous generation of these cells can replenished the implant to reduce shrinkage,” said Dr. Mao.

Currently, surgeons often graft from the patient’s own tissue, which creates additional wounds. Grafted cells also fail to stay alive, causing implants to shrink up to 70 percent and lose their shape and volume. Attempts have also been made to use fat cells left over after liposuction, but those cells also have a limited lifespan.

The Columbia team of biologists, biomedical engineers, biomaterial scientists, imaging experts and surgeons has shown that human mesenchymal stem cells can create long-lasting implants in mice. The implant is created by placing the stem cells into an FDA-approved scaffold that mimics the conditions needed to turn stem cells into fat cells. Because stem cells have the ability to replicate and differentiate, they can regenerate the soft tissue, keeping the implant from shrinking. In mice, these cells have successfully created fat cells that could be implanted and retained their size and shape for at least a month.

• Read more: Researchers Use Adult Stem Cells to Create Soft Tissue

Cambridge, UK - Intercytex Group plc, the cell therapy company focused on aesthetic medicine and tissue repair, announces today a clinical breakthrough in regenerative medicine following the conclusion of a clinical trial in which laboratory-made living human skin has been fully and consistently integrated into the human body for the first time. ICX-SKN contrasts with all other living skin graft alternatives which biodegrade in situ after a matter of weeks.

In the trial - which is published in the July issue of Regenerative Medicine - a full-thickness skin sample was excised from the upper arm of six volunteers and replaced with Intercytex’ skin graft replacement product, ICX-SKN. After 28 days both visual and histological analysis showed that in all volunteers the ICX-SKN grafts were rapidly vascularised and overgrown with the hosts’ own cells, resulting in a fully integrated skin graft that had closed and healed the wound site.

ICX-SKN comprises a collagen-based matrix produced by the same skin cells - human fibroblasts - that are responsible for laying down the collagen in natural skin. The fibroblasts weave a collagen structure which mimics that found in skin and which shares many of the structural attributes of skin. Intercytex’ scientists believe that the combination of living human fibroblasts in a human fibroblast-produced matrix underpins the integration and acceptance of ICX-SKN by the host skin. To date, other living regenerative medicine skin constructs have degraded too quickly to act as skin grafts when implanted in the human body.

In certain wounds and burns the use of skin grafts taken from a different part of the patient’s own body is the optimal treatment to obtain wound closure. However, their use is avoided wherever possible because skin grafting itself is a painful and traumatic process that creates an additional wound. ICXSKN represents a potential alternative which could be of enormous benefit to patients and physicians.

• Read more: Intercytex announces world first in skin repair using laboratory-manufactured human skin

InterCytex has signed a licensing agreement with BioLife Solutions Inc., a leading developer and marketer of proprietary hypothermic storage and cryopreservation media products for cells and tissues.

Terms of the 10-year agreement include an intellectual property escrow provision which guarantees Intercytex access under certain conditions to BioLife’s HypoThermosol storage and preservation media when used in the production of Intercytex’ VAVELTA (ICX-RHY), a facial rejuvenation product and ICX-TRC, their hair regeneration product, as well as annual license fees payable to BioLife.

Intercytex Chief Executive Nick Higgins commented on the selection of BioLife’s technology and the licensing agreement: “We completed a thorough evaluation of several commercial and generic hypothermic storage and preservation media products. HypoThermosol clearly outperformed all competing alternatives, so securing long-term access to the product was a priority.”

BioLife Chief Executive Mike Rice stated: “We are extremely pleased to be providing Intercytex with key enabling technology for the commercialization of their new cell therapy products. As a growing number of companies have realized, when used as a transportation and preservation media for biologic source material and finished cell therapy products, HypoThermosol provides optimal post preservation cell viability and function. This agreement validates the diverse applications potential of our intellectual property portfolio and the benefits our products provide to the cell therapy market.

Intercytex is the leading cell therapy company focused on the restoration and regeneration of skin and hair. Intercytex is using its fully integrated cell technology platform to develop living, human cell-based products, at commercially viable scale in attractive markets. Intercytex commenced operations in 2000 and currently employs around 75 staff. In addition to its head office in Cambridge, UK, it has a GMP clinical production facility plus research and development laboratories in Manchester, UK. Additional laboratories are located in Boston, USA.

Intercytex is asked many questions about ICX-TRC, so in response, they have created a new web-page to provide some answers.

Please note: ICX-TRC is at an early stage of its development and there are still many unknowns which will become clearer as their clinical program develops and the regulatory environment matures. The answers given below are provided by Intercytex in good faith based on current knowledge, but they are subject to change due to clinical trial results, scientific research or other factors which influence the development of new healthcare products. Therefore, anyone reading the information below is asked to do so in the same spirit and should not alter any current or future medication or hair treatment plan as a result.

Their web-site is frequently updated so please see the relevant pages for the latest information on ICX-TRC.

When this or any other info is updated an alert will be sent to everyone who has registered via their alert service, which can be found at this link: http://www.intercytex.com/icx/services/alert/

• Read more: Intercytex releases FAQ on their ICX-TRC hair cloning procedure

Aderans Research Institute, Inc., has just been issued a patent for their bioabsorbable scaffolds.  These scaffolds are used in hair cloning procedures to ensure that the cultured cells are kept in place in order for a new hair follicle to be formed.

The patent, number 7,198,641, which was initially filed on August 7, 2001 and has subsequently been revised, was finally issued on April 3, 2007.

According to the patient, the “bioabsorbable scaffolds are useful for the tissue engineering of new hair follicles and to methods for their manufacture and to methods of their use in creating new hair. More specifically it relates to new and useful bioabsorbable porous structures that have the correct architecture to facilitate culturing of the appropriate follicle progenitor cells and their development into normal, functional, hair-producing follicles. The invention also relates to methods of making and using bioabsorbable scaffolds to implant and grow new hair follicles in vitro and in vivo.”

These tiny scaffolds are essentially the key to being able to grow new hair follicles because without them the cells cannot be held together after being injected into the scalp.   New hair follicles get created in a specific process that results from the interaction between different cells.   If these cells cannot be held together in the same place by some mechanism, then they will simply disperse from the point of injection and no new hair follicle will be formed. 

The process for using the scaffolds to grow new hair follicles goes something like this:

• Read more: New patent issued to Aderans for hair cloning technology

Intercytex recently released their annual report which includes details of their hair cloning technique dubbed ICX-TRC.

The Phase II trial of ICX-TRC, their cell therapy product for hair regeneration in male-pattern baldness, began in September 2006.  The process involves taking a biopsy from the subject, separating out the relevant cells, and growing them in their facility using a proprietary process.

All biopsies from the first group of 9 patients have been taken and most of these patients have been treated.  Further groups will follow to investigate variations in the delivery technique.   Intercytex expect to report preliminary data from this trial around the middle of 2007.

In the Phase I trial, which had 7 subjects, there were no safety issues and 5 out of the 7 patients had an increased number of hairs after treatment.  The Phase II trials have 10 patients per group and is ongoing.  It is an efficacy trial designed to look for new hair growth.

Intercytex has also received a £1.8m grant from the British government to assist in the commercialization of their process.

Newswise — A newly discovered small molecule called IQ-1 plays a key role in preventing embryonic stem cells from differentiating into one or more specific cell types, allowing them to instead continue growing and dividing indefinitely, according to research performed by a team of scientists who have recently joined the stem-cell research efforts at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Their findings are being published today in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This discovery takes scientists another step closer to being able to grow embryonic stem cells without the “feeder layer” of mouse fibroblast cells that is essential for maintaining the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells, says the study’s primary investigator, Michael Kahn, Ph.D., who was recently named the first Provost’s Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy at USC. Such a layer is needed because it is currently the only proven method to provide the stem cells with the necessary chemical signals that prompt them to stay undifferentiated and to continue dividing over and over.

Still, growing human embryonic stem cells on a layer of mouse fibroblasts has never made much sense to the scientists forced to do just that. “Stem cells that grow on feeders are contaminated with mouse glycoproteins markers,” Kahn says.

“If you use them into humans, you’d potentially have a horrible immune response.”

• Read more: Scientists Unlock Mystery of Embryonic Stem Cell Signaling Pathway