The culture of dermal papilla cells from human hair follicles.

Dermal papillae were isolated from human hair follicles and primary cell cultures were established from the papilla explants. The cultured papilla cells spread slowly, initially as a monolayer, and eventually formed multi-layered parallel arrays of fibroblast-like cells. At the edges of expanding colonies the cells were large and flattened and showed a tendency to form clumps. The behaviour of human dermal papilla cells in culture is very similar to that reported in cultures of papilla cells from rat vibrissa follicles.