Hair follicle transplant helps scar tissue healing

Scar tissue in the skin lacks hair, sweat glands, blood vessels and nerves, features that are crucial for regulating body temperature, as well as detecting pain and other sensations. Scarring can also impair mobility and organ function, and can often carry an emotional toll alongside the physical complications.

Compared to scar tissue, healthy skin undergoes constant remodelling by the hair follicle. Hairy skin heals faster and scars less than non-hairy skin, with hair transplants previously been shown to aid wound healing. Inspired by this, the researchers hypothesised that transplanting growing hair follicles into scar tissue might induce scars to remodel themselves. Following the transplant, the treated scar tissue harboured new cells and blood vessels, remodelled collagen to restore healthy patterns, and expressed genes found in healthy, unscarred skin.  

“After scarring, the skin never truly regains its pre-wound functions, and until now all efforts to remodel scars have yielded poor results,” explained lead author Dr Claire Higgins, from Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering.