Riken to Test Safety of Hair Regeneration Technology

June 5, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese government-affiliated research institute Riken has said that it will start animal testing in July to check the safety of hair regeneration technology.

The test of the technology to grow hair follicles outside the human body for transplantation will end this year.

If no problem is found, Riken intends to conduct clinical research into the technology for the treatment of male pattern hair loss, known as androgenic alopecia, or AGA, at a university hospital. The technology was developed by a Riken team led by Takashi Tsuji.

"We hope to put the technology into practical use in 2020 at the earliest" although hair loss treatment using the technology will unlikely be covered by health insurance programs for the time being, Yasuhiro Sugimura, president of Riken-originated startup Organ Technologies Inc., which will cooperate with Riken in the research, said at a press conference on Monday.

Once the technology is put into practical use for AGA, Riken and Organ Technologies will develop methods to treat female pattern hair loss and congenital scantiness of hair, according to Sugimura.

To treat AGA at present, follicles in the back of the head are transplanted into the top and other parts of the head, but it is impossible to restore original hair density.

The Tsuji-led research team succeeded in cultivating three types of cells composing follicles and increasing one follicle to 100. In cooperation with Kyocera Corp., the team is working to standardize regenerated follicles and develop technology to mass-produce them automatically.

For the animal testing, the team will use mice that have no hair and do not show immune rejection even if human cells are transplanted into them. The team aims to confirm that regenerated human follicles have no toxicity and do not cause tumors after the source of the cells is transplanted into the mice's backs. Jiji Press