Research finds link between immune system, hair growth

A typical treatment for alopecia, a disorder in which a person's immune system destroys their own hair follicles and results in hair loss, has been shown to have an unexpected molecular target, according to Salk experts. The research, which was published in Nature Immunology, describes how immune cells termed regulatory T cells interact with skin cells by employing a hormone as a messenger to promote the formation of new hair follicles. They first investigated how these immune components functioned in multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and asthma. They found that glucocorticoids and regulatory T cells did not function together to play a significant role in any of these conditions. So, they thought they'd have more luck looking at environments where regulatory T cells expressed particularly high levels of glucocorticoid receptors (which respond to glucocorticoid hormones), such as in skin tissue. The scientists induced hair loss in normal mice and mice lacking glucocorticoid receptors in their regulatory T cells. The findings suggested that some sort of communication must be occurring between regulatory T cells and hair follicle stem cells to allow for hair regeneration.