Journal of Cytology & Histology

Follicular Stem Cells in Androgenetic Alopecia

Abstract

Hend Gamil, Magda Assaf, Manal Elsayed, Khaled Gharib, Ayman Yosef, Mohamed Khater, Mohamed Nasr and Mohamed Soliman

Although the pathogenesis of androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is poorly understood, recent studies suggest that compromising the integrity of the follicular bulge area and or sebaceous gland may play a role. This study was designed to evaluate the role of follicular bulge stem cells in AGA. Twenty patients with AGA (17 males and 3 females) with a mean age of 24.05 ± 1.6 were the subjects of this study. A 4 mm punch biopsy specimen was obtained from both occipital skin and frontal affected area of scalp of each patient and embedded in paraffin. Tissue sections were immunostained using the Cytokeratin 15(CK 15) Ab-1 mouse monoclonal antibody. Cytokeratin 15 immunoreactivity was observed both in the frontal and occipital skin biopsies in the follicular bulge region and outer root sheath in all 20 AGA patients (100%). This study suggests that follicular stem cells in the bulge region are not the target in AGA. Further studies using other stem cell markers are recommended to clarify the role of follicular stem cells in AGA pathogenesis.