Breakthrough

Baldness breakthrough: Stem cells coaxed into growing hair


It could be the answer to the prayers of millions of men. Scientists have coaxed stem cells into growing hair for the first time.
At present, there are 7.4 million Britons affected by baldness. If they are unhappy about their appearance they are limited to choosing between a comb-over, a toupee or a transplant.
But within a decade, advances in stem cell science could help them to regrow their own hair where it has been lost.
The breakthrough could also lead to new treatments for other conditions, such as alopecia, in which hair is lost in patches.
Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists described how they had shown that adult mammals are able to grow new hair follicles.
It had been thought that follicles, the tiny structures responsible for hair growth, were always formed before birth, with their gradual death leading to baldness.
The discovery that it is possible to develop new follicles later in life paves the way for new hair loss treatments.
The University of Pennsylvania researchers made their discovery when studying the process of wound healing in mice.
They found that as the wound heals, new hair follicles form underneath the new skin ? allowing new hair to sprout.
Close examination showed that the follicles were formed from stem cells ? master cells capable of turning into different cells and tissues.
Key to the process was a protein called wnt, which is usually active only in the womb. If levels of the protein are increased, more hair grows. Without wnt, no hair grows.
Adding wnt also helped the wounds to heal better. It is thought that when the skin heals itself, it returns to a state similar to that found in the developing foetus, allowing new, fully functional follicles to form.
Although all work so far has been carried out in mice, the researchers are hopeful a similar technique could lead to treatments for humans.
Because wounding appears essential to the process, it is likely the skin would be grazed in the area to be treated, and a wnt-based drug given.
So far, all hair produced has been white, suggesting new hair would have to be dyed to make it look more natural. The first human trials are, however, at least two years away ? and any cure for baldness is not expected for a decade.
Experts have described the breakthrough as "remarkable".
Dr Denis Headon, a developmental biologist from Manchester University, said: "Up to now we thought that the number of hair follicles we have is set before we were born and can only go downhill from there.
"This work shows that new hair follicles are made in adult skin, at least when it is healing a wound. The implication is that it might be simpler than we thought to make new hair follicles as a treatment for hair loss."
Other remedies may appear on the market more quickly, with British scientists believing it may be possible to restore hair growth via a series of injections.

Fiona MacRae
Courtesy: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Androgenetic Alopecia - Baldness.

Alopecia, commonly known as baldness, is a set of disorders which involves the state of lacking hair where it would normally grow, especially on the head.

One out of every three women experience noticeable hair loss, while the case for men is about 50%. Due to hormonal difference, women can hardly suffer total hair loss like men, instead their hairs can just thin down. This, scientifically speaking, is as a result of the fact that men produce more testosterone than women, and testosterone being the major cause of Androgenetic Alopecia (Baldness). While Androgenetic Alopecia is the number one reason why individuals experience hair loss, it is not the only one. But is hair loss a disease?

Hair loss is obviously not a disease but a natural process. According to Wiki the average human head has about 100,000 hair follicles. Each follicle is likely to grow somewhere around 20 individual hairs in a person's lifetime, and average hair loss is about 100 strands a day. This means that hair loss is natural. And while someone who is genetically disposed to Alopecia is getting older, the chances to baldness increase. But baldness not being a disease, why is there so much fuss?

The fuss is found in our society which grows by continuous maintenance of everything. We want to continue maintaining our youthfulness, and the truth is it looks good to be youthful. That is why from ancient times a lot of effort has been put into re-growing lost hair. From Egypt to Africa, down to Middle and Far East and the Americas a lot of medical and magical efforts have been put into curing hair loss. Egyptians and Africans have used from chopped lettuce patches, Fir Tree extracts, Castor Oils to properties of Avocado, and also mixed Olive Oil. The Indians have used things like Amla Oil and Fenugreek powder. And in more recent times Emu Oil is favored with a reduction in the volume of vitamin A consumption.

How successful those cures had been is better left to ancient medical history. But even today hair loss continues to be a thing of serious concern, and better treatments are being made available by professionals. And there are good ones to choose to help those with balding heads return to (once nostalgic) youthfulness.