No / Canities or senile hair graying, a universally recognized sign of aging, remains unresolved in terms of physiological causes, although a strong genetic contribution is understood (Gunn et al., 2009). As the hair fiber continues to grow long after melanin production ceases, we suggest that melanocytes in the hair follicle may be more sensitive to the impact of chronological aging than are keratinocytes. Moreover, follicular melanocytes also age more markedly than those in the overlying epidermis. The hair follicle provides a unique opportunity to decouple the impact of age on two hair follicular tissue functions: hair formation and hair pigmentation. ... This study provides analysis of race, age, and anatomically matched cultures of adult human epidermal and hair follicle melanocytes (HFMs).

No / The development of hair follicle organ culture techniques is a significant milestone in cutaneous biology research. The hair follicle, or more accurately the "pilo-sebaceous unit", encapsulates all the important physiologic processes found in the human body; controlled cell growth/death, interactions between cells of different histologic type, cell differentiation and migration, and hormone responsitivity to name a few. Thus, the value of the hair follicle as a model for biological scientific research goes way beyond its scope for cutaneous biology or dermatology alone. Indeed, the recent and dramatic upturn in interest in hair follicle biology has focused principally on the pursuit of two of biology's holy grails; post-embryonic morphogenesis and control of cyclical tissue activity. The hair follicle organ culture model, pioneered by Philpott and colleagues, ushered in an exceptionally accessible way to assess how cells of epithelial (e.g., keratinocytes), mesenchymal (e.g., fibroblasts), and neuroectodermal (e.g., melanocytes) origin interact in a three-dimensional manner. Moreover, this assay system allows us to assess how various natural and pharmacologic agents affect complex tissues for growth modulation. In this article, I focus on the culture of the human hair follicle mini-organ, discussing both the practical issues involved and some possible research applications of this assay.