The use of polyethylenimine-DNA to topically deliver hTERT to promote hair growth.

Gene Ther. 2011 May 19. [Epub ahead of print]
The use of polyethylenimine-DNA to topically deliver hTERT to promote hair growth.
Jan HM, Wei MF, Peng CL, Lin SJ, Lai PS, Shieh MJ.

Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

The present study investigates the efficacy of polyethylenimine (PEI)-DNA complex that expressed human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) to transfect hair follicle stem cells and produce sufficient hTERT to stimulate hair growth. Transfection with pLC-hTERT-DNA-PEI complex (D+P group) in vitro induced expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in 35.8% of the purified stem cell population, suggesting enhanced cell proliferation. In vivo transfection efficiency of rat dorsal skin was determined by staining for β-gal activity. Cells positive for β-gal were located in the bulge region and dermal sheath of hair follicles. The follicles in the hTERT-transfected region entered anagenon day 15 after transfection, whereas non-transfected (Neg) controls remained in telogen. The similar effect was observed in 50-day-old rat dorsal skin. D+P group displayed a specific expression of hTERT and sufficient to initiate a transition to the anagen phase and promote new hair synthesis 18 days after the transfection. hTERT promoted follicle neogenesis following wounding. In all, 60 days after wounding, tissues of the D+P group showed more newly regenerating hair follicles (83±52 regenerated follicles per rat) in contrast to control group tissues (15±15 regenerated follicles per rat). These studies provide a potential approach for gene therapy of skin disease.Gene Therapy advance online publication, 19 May 2011; doi:10.1038/gt.2011.62.