Abstract: Objective To investigate the feasibility of inducing human hair FSCs(follicle stem cells) into VSMCs(vascular smooth muscle cells) in vitro.Methods The human hair FSCs were isolated by dispase and cultured in DMEM containing 10 ng/mL PDGF-BB as experimental group,and the human hair FSCs cultured in DMEM without PDGF-BB were set up as control group.The morphological change of each passage was observed,the expression of α-Smooth Muscle actin(α-SM actin) and calponin in each group were tested after inducing FSCs at passage 4.Results The VSMC-like change was obviously observed in the induced FSCs,while the same phenomenon was not found in control group.α-SM actin and calponin were expressed by immunocytochemical staining in the induced FSCs of fourth passage,while little expression was observed in the control group.FCM showed nearly 50% of expression rate of α-SM actin and calponin in the experimental group,much higher than 8% in control group.RT-PCR further confirmed the expression of calponin in experimental group,and no obvious expression of calponin was tested in control group.Conclusion FSCs can be induced into VSMCs in vitro by DMEM containing 10 ng/mL PDGF-BB.

Key words: Follicle stem cells, Vascular smooth muscle cells, Tissue engineering