A Study Comparing Survival of Hair Follicles Stored Cold and at Room Temperature

Abstract

Prior to being inserted in the recipient site, grafts are typically stored for hours ex vivo at a cold temperature (4°C). However, previous research has suggested that room temperature storage may deliver similar results. Here, I describe a study on three patients to examine whether grafts (2-hair follicles each) have better survival after being stored in a cold (4°C, 330 hair follicles) or a room-temperature (21°C, 330 hair follicles) environment during surgery. I additionally examined whether hair follicles that received one of six different stressors (800 follicles) could be “rescued” by cold or room temperature storage. Results demonstrated that the follicles stored at room temperature survived significantly better (90.9%) than those stored at a cold temperature (80.3%). Neither temperature proved better for follicles that were stressed. In sum, chilling our graft storage solution may not be the best choice when we can achieve consistent superior survival with room-temperature storage.