![Researchers Regrow Hair on Damaged Skin: Study Researchers Regrow Hair on Damaged Skin: Study](https://images.medindia.net/health-images/1200_1000/role-of-immune-cells-in-promoting-hair-growth-unearthed.jpg)
‘New study explains why hair does not usually grow on wounded skin and may aid in the search for better medicines to restore hair growth.’
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As part of their investigation, researchers activated the sonic hedgehog signaling pathway used by cells to communicate with each other. The pathway is known to be very active during the early stages of human growth in the womb, when hair follicles are formed, but is otherwise stalled in wounded skin in healthy adults. Researchers say this possibly explains why hair follicles fail to grow in skin replaced after injury or surgery.![twitter](https://images.medindia.net/icons/news/social/twitter.png)
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"Our results show that stimulating fibroblasts through the sonic hedgehog pathway can trigger hair growth not previously seen in wound healing," says study senior investigator and cell biologist Mayumi Ito, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone Health.
Regrowing hair on damaged skin is an unmet need in medicine, Ito says, because of the disfigurement suffered by thousands from trauma, burns, and other injuries. However, her more immediate goal, she adds, is to signal mature skin to revert back to its embryonic state so that it can grow new hair follicles, not just on wounded skin, but also on people who have gone bald from aging.
Ito says scientists have until now assumed that, as part of the healing process, scarring and collagen buildup in damaged skin were behind its inability to regrow hair. "Now we know that it's a signaling issue in cells that are very active as we develop in the womb, but less so in mature skin cells as we age," she adds.
Key among the study's findings was that no signs of hair growth were observed in untreated skin, but were observed in treated skin, offering evidence that sonic hedgehog signaling was behind the hair growth.
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Hair regrowth was observed within four weeks after skin wounding in all treated mice, with a hair root and shaft structures starting to appear after nine weeks.
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Source-Eurekalert