Can You Teach an Old Cell New Tricks?

We talked with Crystal Muilenburg of Acorn Biolabs to find out how, and then I visited Carly Klein, CEO of National Hair Loss Medical Aesthetics, to collect my own.

Acorn, founded in 2017, is a personalized regenerative medicine company helping people preserve their own cells to prepare for the future of cell-based treatments.

“Until now, if you wanted to collect stem cells, you’d have to have a surgical procedure, retrieving them from your bone marrow, adipose, umbilical cord or other places, which is not easily accessible and oftentimes painful. But did you know that you can find stem cells in the hair follicle? And they are much easier to collect there,” says Muilenburg.

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Using a collection kit, 50 hairs are taken from the scalp, processed and then cryogenically frozen and stored for future use. The stem cells found in hair follicles are bioequivalent to bone marrow stem cells.

Most exosomes are sourced from donors. However, using one’s own cells that are preserved and banked for the future improves compatibility and acceptance. These cells are frozen and reanimated in the lab and used to produce the Acorn topical product. The product is then sent to a clinic, where they are reconstituted into a personalized hyaluronic acid to be used.

The biggest number of clinics in the U.S. using hair follicle collection for stem cells are using them alongside hair restoration procedures.

Essentially, Acorn does the collection, and your doctor would use the byproduct. The next phase would be to develop a haircare product made using your own stem cells.

One local medical clinic, NHLMA, is collecting these items.

“This has been groundbreaking for regenerative medicine. Patients are so excited to have the chance to bank their own stem cells. Not only for aesthetic purposes but for their health. We are thrilled to be one of the first in Arizona to offer this type of service for our patients,” says Klein.

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That’s where it all begins. In the subsequent iterations, the company will explore applications benefitting sports medicine and recovery. Professional athletes and sports teams are interested in banking an athlete’s young cells to use later, with the advantage of having the youngest cells play a role in an athlete’s recovery.

Future uses could include a treatment for diabetes using stem cells, among other medical applications. A study was just published from the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital showing the ability to use Acorn autologous stem cells to create induced pluripotent stem cells, which essentially can become any cell in the body. From there, these stem cells were used to generate pancreatic cells and then islet cells, which are responsible for producing insulin.

What if you want to collect your stem cells and bank them for use later? It’s as simple as the hair on your head, and the professionals at NHLMA can do this procedure for you.