Study On Preservation Of Hair Follicle Units And The Feasibility Of Delayed Hair Transplantation

The feasibility of delayed hair transplantation depends on the viability of the preserved hair grafts maintains at an accepted level. Temperature and storage medium are two key factors which affect the viability of the preserved grafts. In this study, viabilities of hair follicles preserved at different temperatures and storage media for various periods were evaluated and compared by cell cultures and athymic mice transplantation. We found:1) The viability of hair follicles preserved at temperature of 26℃(in Ringer's solution) decreased sharply within 24 hours. Outer root sheath cells could be cultivated in 90.3% and 34.7% of the hair follicles which had been preserved for only 6 and 12 hours respectively.2) Hair follicles could be preserved in Ringer's solution much more hours at lower temperatures (0 or 4℃).However,the viability of hair follicles preserved at 0℃ was higher than that at 4℃. Outer root sheath cells could be cultivated in 96% (0℃) and 92% (4℃) of hair follicles which had been preserved for 24 hours(p >0.1). However, the rates decreased significantly in both two temperature groups, if the follicles had been preserved for 48 hours or longer (p <0.01-0.05). When hair follicle units were transplanted into athymic mice after 24 hours of preservation, 85% (0℃) and 79% (4℃) of the follicles re-grew well in...