we isolated a population of adult stem cells with NCSC features from the bulge area of mouse whisker follicles. These bulge precursor cells, grown as three-dimensional spheroid structures, were capable of self-renewal through asymmetric cell division in vitro. They did not express squamous markers but expressed immature neural crest cell markers as well as the embryonic stem cell transcription factors. Furthermore, they exhibited multipotency that can give rise to neuronal, glia, myogenic, adipocyte, chondrocyte, and osteocyte lineage cells after targeted induction. This technology offered new opportunities for the use of these cells in regenerative medicine.
Next step, we developed an efficient method for differentiating hair NCSCs into melanocytes. The NCSCs-derived differentiated cells displayed a characteristic bipolar or tripolar morphology and expressed melanocytic markers with melanin pigment production. This could provide a novel in vitro system for studying the developmental biology and diseases of melanocytes.
Finally we shown an analysis by using NCSC isolated from mice with different age, in order to investigate whether the stem/progenitor cell pool with age or not. Hair NCSC abundance and function were found to decrease sharply with age, being extremely difficult to isolate, expand, differentiate and migrate when obtained from the elderly. Those changes represent novel insights into the aging process and could have implications regarding the potential for autologous stem cells therapy in older patients.