The present report demonstrates improved hair shaft growth of isolated hair follicles on
Gelfoam. Isolated free-floating follicles were previously observed to produce elongating hair
shafts but apparently were not viable for very long periods of time [12, 13]. Gelfoam supports
both hair shaft and nerve growth [8] of isolated whisker follicles and maintained viability of the follicles for at least 63 days, much longer than free-floating follicles, which can enable longterm experimentation. Thus, the present report demonstrates an improvement of hair follicle
histoculture with increased hair-shaft growth, increased period of histoculture, as well as
increasing stem cell fluorescence intensity and fluorescent area for at least 63 days. The strong increase in hair-follicle stem-cell ND-GFP fluorescence indicates increased activity and the proliferation of the stem cells. It is notable that the greatest increase in stem cell fluorescence is during the period of hair-shaft elongation (Figs 2 and 3).