Alopecia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alopecia, including details on hair loss, baldness, treatment, causes, prevention.

Regulation of hair regrowth in alopecic site of IFN-gamma-/- mice by macrophages infiltrating into allograft in IFN-gamma+/+ mice.

Okada M, Tashiro-Yamaji J, Takahashi T, Nomi H, Yamamoto Y, Yamaguchi S, Ueda K, Kubota T, Yoshida R

Department of Physiology, Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki, Japan.

We previously demonstrated that around 6 weeks of age, most of the interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)-/- C57BL/6 mice began to lose morphogenesis-derived hairs in their dorsal and occipital areas and that hair regrowth in the alopecic site was induced by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of IFN-gamma and allogeneic Meth A cells. Here, we explored the IFN-gamma mRNA expression in the cells infiltrating into allograft in IFN-gamma(+)/(+) mice by RT-PCR and adoptively transferred specific antigen-minus infiltrates into IFN-gamma-/- mice to assess the hair regrowth inducibility. IFN- gamma mRNA was expressed in the infiltrates on days 3-8 after allografting, with a peak on day 3 or 4, and CD4(+) and F4/80(+) cells were the major producers of IFN-gamma. All infiltrates on day 3 induced hair regrowth, whereas those on days 0-2 or 4-8 were ineffective or partially effective, respectively. The removal of F4/80(+) macrophages from all infiltrates failed to induce hair regrowth, whereas the removal of Ly-6C(+) macrophages rather accelerated the hair regrowth. These results showed that F4/80(+), Ly-6C(+), and CD4(+) and F4/80(+) cells were stimulatory, inhibitory, and IFN-gamma-producing cells, respectively, in the regulation of hair regrowth.

Published 26 September 2005 in J Interferon Cytokine Res, 25(9): 564-74.
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