Background: Mesenchymal stem cell therapy has been illuminated as a new therapeutic strategy for immunologic disorders. Alopecia areata is a representative hair loss disorder by autoimmune mechanism. Patients with refractory alopecia areata have poor prognosis and there have been no proven effective treatment so far. Recently, there have been only few attempts to treat alopecia areata with mesenchymal stem cell therapy. However, their efficacy and mechanisms in treating alopecia areata is not known.
Objective: We sought to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of human hematopoietic MSCs (hHMSCs) on in vitro model of alopecia areata and to explore relevant mechanisms that regulate their efficacy.
Methods: Alopecia areata-like environment was induced in the human dermal papilla cells by pretreatment of IFN-γ. hHMSCs were administered to the human dermal papilla cells, and cell viability assay was determined. The change of
expression of Wnt/β-catenin pathway and JAK-STAT pathway-related molecules, cytokines and growth factors in hHMSCs-treated dermal papilla cells was also examined by reverse transcription-PCR and western blot assay.
Results: Cell therapy with hHMSCs enhanced the cell viability of the human dermal papilla cells dose-dependently. hHMSCs activated several molecules in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway including ß-catenin and phosphorylated
GSK3b and decreased the expression of DKK1 in human dermal papilla cells. hHMSCs suppressed IFN-γ-induced expressions of caspase-1, 3, and IFN-γ receptor and reversed the phosphorylation of STAT1 and STAT5 increased
by IFN-γ pretreatment in human dermal papilla cells. hHMSCs-treated dermal papilla cells also showed increased levels of several growth factors, especially FGF2.
Conclusion: These data suggest that the cell therapy with hHMSCs may promote hair growth and recover the hair follicle-immune privilege by modulating Wnt/β-catenin pathway and JAK-STAT pathway and could be a new therapeutic option in treating alopecia areata.

The Effect of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy on in vitro model of Alopecia Areata