• María-Luisa Martínez, Eduardo Escario, Enrique Poblet, David Sánchez, Fernando-Francisco Buchón, Ander Izeta, and Francisco Jimenez.
• Department of Dermatology, General Hospital of Villarrobledo, Albacete, Spain.
• J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. 2016 Nov 1; 75 (5): 1007-1014.

BackgroundA prominent role of hair follicle-derived cells in epidermal wound closure is now well established but clinical translation of basic research findings is scarce. Although skin punch grafts have been used as a therapeutic intervention to improve healing of chronic leg ulcers, they are normally harvested from nonhairy areas, thus not taking advantage of the reported role of the hair follicle as a wound-healing promoter.ObjectiveWe sought to substantiate the role of hair follicles in venous leg ulcer healing by transplanting hair follicle-containing versus nonhairy punch grafts.MethodsThis was a randomized controlled trial with intraindividual comparison of hair follicle scalp grafts and nonhairy skin grafts transplanted in parallel into 2 halves of the same ulcer.ResultsUlcer healing measured as the average percentage reduction 18 weeks postintervention was significantly increased (P = .002) in the hair follicle group with a 75.15% (SD 23.03) ulcer area reduction compared with 33.07% (SD 46.17) in the control group (nonhairy grafts).LimitationsSample size was small (n = 12).ConclusionAutologous transplantation of terminal hair follicles by scalp punch grafts induces better healing than punch grafts harvested from nonhairy areas. Hair punch grafting is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that appears to be effective as a therapeutic tool for chronic venous leg ulcers.Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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