In vitro Differentiation of Hair Follicle Stem Cell into Keratinocyte by Simvastatin

Background: Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) located in the bulge area has shown to be highly proliferative and could differentiate into neurons, glia, smooth muscle cell, and melanocytes in vitro. Simvastatin is an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor that exerts pleiotropic effects beyond simple low-density lipoprotein lowering and has a similar impact on the differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The present study examined the hypothesis that the application of simvastatin would induce the HFSCs differentiation into keratinocyte.