Generation of a novel humanized mouse model for pre-clinical in vivo studies on androgenetic alopecia
Amos Gilhar, Aviad Keren, Yehuda Ullmann, Jeff Wu, Ralf Paus
Gilhar A, et al. Exp Dermatol, 2022
Male-pattern baldness, also known as androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a common form of hair loss. It is characterized by a conversion of the hair from the growth phase (anagen) into the resting phase (telogen) and a reduction of hair follicle size (miniaturization) causing the production of thinner hairs with a fragile shaft that easily fall out. The major therapeutic goal of AGA treatments is to prevent the hair loss and miniaturization. However, the development of therapies is slowed down by the lack of pre-clinical models for testing potential drugs.
In order to circumvent this problem, Monasterium Laboratory established a collaboration with the “Skin Research Laboratory, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa”, to generate a “humanized mouse model” for mimicking human diseases in vivo, thus in a living organisms.
The aim of this brief communication was to validate this novel model for pre-clinical studies on AGA. Therefore, the authors transplanted patches of balding human scalp skin into mice and applied minoxidil, an approved formulation to treat AGA. Excitingly, minoxidil application resulted into significantly increased hair growth on the transplanted skin patches.
These data corroborate that this novel humanized mouse model optimally recapitulates the expected treatment responses in human AGA. Therefore, it permits pharmacological testing of candidate AGA therapeutics.
Keywords: humanized mouse model, xenotransplant, pre-clinical model, hair growth, hair loss, androgenetic alopecia.
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