When hair fall starts setting in, most of the people experience the same phenomenon, which reminds them of their full head of super and bouncy mane in their teens. However, with age, the same features of the full head do not remain the same, and you are supposed to see your hair washing away in the shower drain, on the hairbrush, with fewer numbers of strands remaining on your head.

It is the rule of the nature that furry mammals are bound to lose their hair with age, and their thick coat of hair will soon thin out.

None of us has an insight into the poor performances of the aging follicles other than the scientists.  But, what is baffling about the whole thing is that how hair follicles fail to function properly to accelerate the hair growth with age.

Japanese scientists have cleared the pathway. They found the factors hindering hair follicles from performing at a greater length with age.  As with other stem cells of living organisms, hair stem cells foster a rejuvenation of hair growth from the roots. But, it is because of aging, hair stem cells become weak and start falling. The study carried out at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University, focused that a massive chemical change to the DNA of these hair follicles due to wear and tear causes stem cells of the hair to prevent new hair growth. In fact, with times the reaction of wear and tear pushes the follicles to become smaller in sizes and hinders new hair from growing.

Since hair follicles shrink over time due to chemical reactions of hair DNA, hair follicle stem cells cannot advocate for new hair growth. The scientists found the factors triggering this chemical process and became successful to find a way to curb the performance of aging follicles too.

While this research is raising hopes to reverse the aging process of hair follicle stem cells, another study by the University of California discovered a new way to generate bright hopes for us too. They have found a new way, which is supposed to activate the hair follicle stem cells to trigger a new hair growth. The finding is useful for individuals having hair loss problems due to stress, alopecia, hormonal imbalance, chemotherapy reactions and aging.

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The hair follicles remain in their ‘quiescent’ state, meaning they remain inactivated until a new hair cycle follow. This prompts for a new hair growth. When the quiescence of hair follicles is influenced by a range of factors, it causes hair loss.

Every cellular metabolism is important for energy production and cell proliferation. Hair follicles require nutrients for metabolism and produce a metabolite called pyruvate. This metabolite turns into lactate when coming in contact with mitochondria. Studies show that when the function of lactate in mice is blocked, they don’t prompt for any hair growth. And when the lactate production is increased, it fosters new hair growth and one the other hand hair follicle stem cells on being activated renew the hair cycle.

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The application of drugs RCGD423 helps cellular signaling pathway JAK-Stat to accelerate the production of lactate. As a result, it promotes hair follicle stem cell activation and hair growth later. Another drug, UK5099 executes the same functions to increase the lactate production and aid in hair growth in mice.

We are looking forward to the clinical trials of these studies on humans so as to they can be authorized for use on humans at the earliest.

Adult stem cells have been in use for different biomedical researchers and novel therapeutic applications for a range of diseases since long. Once again, they prove to be a useful medical tool for debilitating conditions as Osteoarthritis. Since researchers have created balanced joint cartilage using adult stem cells, we can expect to get rid of the excruciating joint pain very soon with an effective transplant process. The researchers at the University and University Hospital of Basel created the liquid component known as cartilage applying certain molecular techniques. The process of the tissue development took place during embryonic cartilage formation. Every one of us could have an elaborate view on this report from the scientific journal of PNAS.
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• Stem Cell Therapy For Knees to Relieve Osteoarthritis

As we all know, osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition of the joints, which causes the destruction of the natural cartilage, weakening of bone density and inflammation. As per medical reports, maximum cases of osteoarthritis result in joint pain restricting the ability to perform normal activities, while affecting the normal quality of life. Until today, so many techniques and medical interventions have proved ineffective in healing the articular cartilage.
In addition to this, mesenchymal stem cell-based therapies have been showing promising hopes to advance cartilage repair. Despite some progressive advancement in the pre-clinical trials, these cell-based therapies are yet to get approval for use in clinical settings. Along with this, other new techniques are on the way to offer novel therapeutic uses for this condition. MSC-based extracellular compounds, improved CRISPR CAS 9 gene editing tools, and miRNAs are devised for the development of new strategies for OA.
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• Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy to Increase the Survival Rate in HLHS

While these are under process, we have another new entrant as a form of stem cell-based cartilage to alleviate our severities.

The skeletal tissue regeneration requires specific mesenchymal or stromal cells from the bone marrow-derived adult stem cells. The adult stem cells pass through a transformation stage, where they first become cartilage, and bone tissues later. It is a natural and an automatic process of the stem cells to turn into cartilage, and then enter the ‘hypertrophic’ state. In this specific state, it spontaneously becomes bone tissues. The same state follows during the cartilaginous tissues after a fracture.

The research team at The University of and University Hospital of Basel showed that cartilage formation is possible using mesenchymal stem cells. However, the process must adhere to the embryonic development of articular cartilage under the influence of certain molecular processes. In order to achieve the cartilage formation, the technique must restrict the signaling pathway of a certain protein Bone Morphogenetic Protein or BMP.

Further, the scientists highlighted the influence of two highly BMP receptor inhibitors in the whole process. When cultured in a microfluid platform, it is possible for them to form cartilage by blocking the effects of the inhibitors. In addition to this, with a blockage for a short span of time, the cartilage can be developed both in a mouse and the lab models.

This discovery is a good sign in the way of disease modeling. At the same time, it opens up new and advanced perspectives for the regenerative medicines and therapies for cartilage formation. Thereby, it focuses on the methods to manipulate tissue engineering for the development of any organ tissue during embryonic cartilage formation.

Last of all, using a certain molecular process, we can control the movement of progenitor and adult stem cells.

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