On maintenance in supplemented Williams E medium, human hair follicles grow at the normal rate, and retain their normal anagen morphology, for up to 10 days. This permits us to study their metabolism under near-physiological conditions. The ATP content of freshly isolated follicles was 124.4 ± 10.6 pmol/follicle (mean ± SEM; n = 50). The energy charge was 0.81 ± 0.08 and the glycogen content 2.3 ± 0.3 nmol/follicle. These did not alter significantly during any metabolic studies, which were performed for up to 6 h in supplemented Williams E medium. We found that the major fuel was glucose, which at physiological concentrations yields 5.47 ± 0.77 nmol ATP/follicle/h, but 90% of the glucose was metabolised to lactate, and only 10% oxidised. Glutamine was also an important fuel, generating 2.16 ± 0.33 nmol ATP/follicle/h, but this too was largely metabolised to lactate rather than oxidised. Lipid fuels such as palmitate or β-hydroxybutyrate only yielded 0.72 ± 0.15 and 0.72 ± 0.14 nmol ATP/follicle/h, respectively, and their oxidation did not inhibit glucose utilisation. No glucose-fatty acid cycle operates in the hair follicle, therefore, but a glucose-glutamine cycle does, since the presence of glutamine will inhibit glucose utilisation.

Keywords:
Hair, Glycolysis, Glutaminolysis, Glutamine, pH, Metabolism, Culture
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© 1994 S. Karger AG, Basel
1994
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