Schembri Kevin, Scerri Christian, Ayers Duncan
Department of Physiology & Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Msida MSD2080, Malta.
ScientificWorldJournal. 2013 Oct 31;2013:620531. doi: 10.1155/2013/620531.
The hair follicle is a skin integument at the boundary between an organism and its immediate environment. The biological role of the human hair follicle has lost some of its ancestral importance. However, an indepth investigation of this miniorgan reveals hidden complexity with huge research potential. An essential consideration when dealing with human research is the awareness of potential harm and thus the absolute need not to harm--a rule aptly qualified by the Latin term "primum non nocere" (first do no harm). The plucked hair shaft offers such advantages. The use of stem cells found in hair follicles cells is gaining momentum in the field of regenerative medicine. Furthermore, current diagnostic and clinical applications of plucked hair follicles include their use as autologous and/or three-dimensional epidermal equivalents, together with their utilization as surrogate tissue in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics studies. Consequently, the use of noninvasive diagnostic procedures on hair follicle shafts, posing as a surrogate molecular model for internal organs in the individual patient for a spectrum of human disease conditions, can possibly become a reality in the near future.
毛囊是生物体与其直接环境之间边界处的一种皮肤附属器。人类毛囊的生物学作用已失去了一些其祖先时期的重要性。然而，对这个微小器官的深入研究揭示了其隐藏的复杂性以及巨大的研究潜力。在进行人体研究时，一个重要的考量是意识到潜在的危害，因此绝对需要避免伤害——这一规则恰好用拉丁语“首要的是不伤害”（primum non nocere）来概括。拔取的毛发具有这样的优势。在再生医学领域，利用毛囊细胞中发现的干细胞正越来越受到关注。此外，目前拔取毛囊的诊断和临床应用包括将其用作自体和/或三维表皮替代物，以及在药代动力学和药效学研究中用作替代组织。因此，对毛囊轴进行非侵入性诊断程序，作为个体患者内部器官在一系列人类疾病状况下的替代分子模型，在不久的将来可能会成为现实。
