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Cure for baldness?
Bald is beautiful to some, but not to all. Here's an MSNBC report for those interested in possible future treatment options. Your comments are welcome.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by BaldGirlsDoLunch.org on
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First and foremost, this is not about a treatment. It's a speculation about treating hairloss caused by mechanisms totally different from alopecia areata. What Dr. Cotsarelis discovered in his lab is not a treatment. He discovered by chance that when mouse skin was traumatized in the presence of an added unnamed "element" that follicles developed where none existed before. A brand new follicle was created from stem cells. This process that he observed to grow a brand new follicle when mouse skin was lacerated, is as close to a cure or treatment at this time for people or for people with alopecia as I am to being a Martian.
In alopecia areata there is not a problem with a lack of follicles. We do not need brand new ones. What the body needs is a way to continue to allow the follicles that are there to complete the normal growth cycling that creates the hair and gets it up and out from below the skin. In alopecia areata, it's a stunted, interrupted molecular process.
The doctor's comments at the end are pure info-tainment. Her unrealistic enthusiam and lack of reasonable caution makes one wonder if she's an investor in Follica which is the for-profit company co-owned by Dr. Vera Price, the naaf founder Follica is raising large sums of investment capital to push the research forward. But again, it's necessary to understand that making a new follicle grow after traumatizing mouse skin and adding some un-named solution may be the answer ultimately for the kinds of baldness where follicles are totally absent. That is yet to be determined. That is not us. Google the words Follica + Vera Price if you're interested in reading about the recent announcements of 5.5 million dollars invested in Follica to research whether this could become a treatment for androgenic hair loss. That is not us.
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The edit manager would not let me edit, but a period is needed to make this accurate. RJ, if you can fix this at your end then you can delete this post.
There should be a period after the words "naaf founder" and before "Follica" so it should read: Her unrealistic enthusiam and lack of reasonable caution makes one wonder if she's an investor in Follica which is the for-profit company co-owned by Dr. Vera Price, the naaf founder. Follica is raising large sums of investment capital to push the research forward.
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This is the study of Dr. Cotsarelis' scientific work published in 2005 that's the basis for the MSN report. The flurry of recent media attention to this work seems to be generated in response to the announcement by Follica that investment capital is being secured to look at commercial applications. I hope that many will take the time to read and better their understanding of the large gaps between valid, basic scientific research such as that done at Univ. Penn and the very long road to safe and effective medical treatments.
Early Responders: Hair Follicle Stem Cells Contribute to Wound Healing, According to New Penn Study
Implications for Skin Problems Related to Diabetes and Other Disorders
(Philadelphia, PA) - Hair follicle stem cells are important contributors to the wound-healing process, according to new research by investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Using an animal model, the researchers discovered that stem cells in the hair follicle are enlisted to help heal wounds in the skin. This finding, published online in Nature Medicine last week, may suggest a therapeutic target for the development of drugs to encourage and promote wound healing.
Wounds, including skin ulcers and other dermatological problems associated with diabetes, circulatory problems, and other diseases, are a growing medical problem in the United States, notes senior author George Cotsarelis, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology. Previous work by the Penn research team had outlined the hair-growth process to show that stem cells in the hair follicle "bulge" area generate new lower hair follicles, which in turn, generate new hair. Their latest finding-that these same stem cells play a key role in initiating wound healing-will help lay the foundation for designing more effective wound-healing strategies.
Even minor wounding resulted in mobilization of follicle stem cells to generate daughter cells that quickly move into the wound area. “About one-third of the coverage of the wound came from the stem cells in the hair follicle,” says Cotsarelis. “In the future, we think that we will be able to design treatments that enhance the flow of cells from the hair follicle to the epidermis in the hope of enhancing wound healing and treating patients with wounds.”
Follow the Blue Light
Clinicians have known for some time that when the skin is abraded new cells come from the hair follicle. What remained a mystery was the exact nature of the origins of the new cells-specifically, what percentage stems from the deep follicle and what percentage from the epidermis near the wound.
Cotsarelis’ team found that adult stem cells from the lowest portion of the hair follicle, or “bulge,” quickly ascend the follicle in response to wounding and ultimately comprise about 30 percent of the new cells in a wound when it first starts to heal. In addition, the stem cells respond rapidly to surface wounding-within two days-by generating short-lived “transient-amplifying” cells that respond to acute wound-healing needs.
Using a genetically engineered mouse designed in their lab, the researchers were able to visually follow the fate of the stem cells as they migrated from deep within the skin to the surface wound site. The mouse stem cells express a reporter gene that encodes an enzyme, which can be detected with a special blue-color reaction. “We could see blue lines coming from the follicles going toward the center of the wound,” says Cotsarelis. “They formed a striking radial pattern like the spokes of a wheel.”
Hope for Hair Loss?
The research also showed that stem cells might be a therapeutic target in certain types of hair loss. Using a different engineered mouse also designed in the Cotsarelis lab, one in which the hair-follicle stem cells could be destroyed after administration of a drug, the researchers discovered that the animals permanently lost all of their hair. This hair loss mimics types of hair loss seen in humans called scarrin
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Permalink Reply by rj, Co-founder on
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Thea, could you post the rest of this article or a link to it? Thanks.
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(...continuation of the December, 2005 originally published in Nature Medicine in prior post and also released by Univ. of Pennsylvania here: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/dec05/stmclwnd.htm
...This hair loss mimics types of hair loss seen in humans called scarring alopecias. But, cautions Cotsarelis, more studies are needed to determine if the loss of hair-follicle stem cells plays a role in hair loss in humans.
This research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.
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Permalink Reply by kastababy on
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I for one am very shocked, appalled, and disappointed that this video has even been posted. To me, seeing this video reminds me of every other so called "baldness cure" that starts out exorbitantly priced yet yields little or no efficacy whatsoever. This "treatment" would only affect someone whose hair follicles have been completely destroyed, which is not the case in someone with AA, AU, or AT. In our case, our hair follicles are intact; however, SOMETHING is causing the hair growth cycle to not start over again after the shedding phase is completed. THAT mechanism is what needs to be researched and worked on, and quite frankly stem cell research isn't going to help a damn thing in that area.
I have never been openly critical of anything on this site until now, and I am quite incensed that this video was posted, because all it is doing is providing false hope to those alopecians who haven't had the opportunity or taken the time to fully research exactly HOW alopecia affects their bodies. Rather than post something that is based purely on speculation, hasn't even made it to the human trials phase of study (which, BTW, you couldn't pay me to do in this case), and at most will affect maybe 2% of all people living with hair loss, why not post something that actually DOES impact those of us with AA, AT, or AU?
I love you RJ, but you really missed the mark with this one.
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You mean to tell me I'm not perfect in your eyes?!?!?! :-/
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You are very wonderful RJ, but everyone blinks sometimes. I'll give you a pass on this one =)
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Permalink Reply by Raph-Paris on
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I was wondering why this was not more discussed in here, and now I understand.
Anyway, Kastababy these 2 percent of the population exists, and they're on this site too.I am one of them (as I have wounding alopecia) and that research represents the only hope for me to grow hairs again.
Now I have noticed most people here had AU, AT and AA. Yet we share a lot of similar hardships don't we?
Anyway this post is an old one now. Has anyone more information about that study?
Thanks a lot.
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