Can fibroblast growth factors substitute for bovine pituitary extracts in culture systems for hair apparatus cells?

The effects of acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors (aFGF and bFGF, respectively) on proliferation and differentiation of cultured hair apparatus cells were examined using bovine pituitary extract (BPE)-free media. The importance of FGFs as growth factors in BPE was also examined. Both FGFs and BPE stimulated cell proliferation and induced cell differentiation into several subpopulations corresponding to those of in vivo cell layers of the hair apparatus. Heparin enhanced the mitogenic activity of aFGF, but it did no affect that of bFGF. Heparin also partially inhibited or postponed the occurrence of cell differentiation induced by aFGF. Both aFGF- and bFGF-like proteins were detected in BPE by Western immunoblotting. BPE treated with anti-aFGF and/or anti-bFGF antibodies retained a significant mitogenic activity, although the mitogenic activities of FGFs were inhibited by their own specific antibodies. These results suggest that growth factors other than FGFs for cultured hair apparatus cells exist in BPE, although FGFs might substitute for BPE in this culture system as they stimulated cell proliferation and induced cell differentiation.