Dispase pretreatment enhances cell outgrowth from explanted human hair papillae

An improved method which accelerates the attachment of cultured human hair papillae and enhances cell outgrowth is described. Bulbs of human hair follicles were exposed and treated in situ with dispase solution (50 units/mL) at 37 degrees C for 45 minutes before isolation and culture of the dermal papillae. About 45% of dispase-treated dermal papillae showed cell outgrowth five days after explant culture, while none of the control papillae did so. At 10 days after culture, 95% of dispase-treated dermal papillae had cell outgrowth, while the comparative figure for the control papillae was only 63%. In addition, many more outgrowing cells were found around the dispase-treated dermal papillae at any time compared to the control papillae. Dispase pretreatment is recommended as a routine procedure in the culture of the dermal papilla cells of human hair follicles.