Scientific Breakthrough for Natural Treatment of Human Hair Growth
(PRWEB UK) 28 October 2013 -- Progress in cloning hair follicle stem cells could help CUMC researchers develop ways to restore the original genes involved in hair growth and increase efficiency of treating alopecia, reports Chemist Direct.
In a Penn study of the causes of alopecia, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation last year, underlying hair follicle stem cells were found intact, suggesting that the scalp was lacking an activator or something was inhibiting hair follicle growth. 1 Hair loss, or as its scientifically known, alopecia, has many causes and symptoms. Alopecia areata is patches of baldness that come and go, and is thought to be caused by problems with the immune system or a gene mutation that can have multiple people in the same family affected by it. Cicatricial alopecia, is hair loss that can occur when the hair follicle is completely destroyed due to scarring or other conditions. Anagen effluvium is widespread hair loss that can affect your scalp, face and body, and is a common side effect of chemotherapy. Telogen effluvium is a common type of alopecia where there is widespread thinning of the hair, rather than specific bald patches and is usually a reaction to stress or medication. Male- and female-pattern baldness is also called androgenic or androgenetic alopecia. 2
Prostaglandins are well characterized for their role in many bodily functions -- controlling cell growth, constricting and dilating smooth muscle tissue -- and a different prostaglandin (F2alpha) is known to increase hair growth. Researchers found that as PGD2 inhibits hair growth, other prostaglandins work in opposition, enhancing and regulating the speed of hair growth. "Although a different prostaglandin was known to increase hair growth, our findings were unexpected, as prostaglandins haven't been thought about in relation to hair loss, yet it made sense that there was an inhibitor of hair growth, based on our earlier work looking at hair follicle stem cells," said George Cotsarelis, MD, chair and professor of Dermatology, and senior author on the studies.3
The latest study co-led by Angela M. Christiano, PhD and a team of researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) in devising a breakthrough hair restoration method that can generate new human hair growth, rather than simply redistribute hair from one part of the scalp to another. This method offers the possibility of inducing large numbers of hair follicles or rejuvenating existing hair follicles, starting with cells grown from just a few hundred donor hairs. It could make hair transplantation available to individuals with a limited number of follicles, including those with female-pattern hair loss, scarring alopecia, and hair loss due to burns.
"Dermal papilla cells give rise to hair follicles, and the notion of cloning hair follicles using inductive dermal papilla cells has been around for 40 years or so," said co-study leader Colin Jahoda, PhD, professor of stem cell sciences at Durham University, England, and co-director of North East England Stem Cell Institute, who is one of the early founders of the field. "However, once the dermal papilla cells are put into conventional, two-dimensional tissue culture, they revert to basic skin cells and lose their ability to produce hair follicles. So we were faced with a Catch-22: how to expand a sufficiently large number of cells for hair regeneration while retaining their inductive properties."
“Current hair-loss medications tend to slow the loss of hair follicles or potentially stimulate the growth of existing hairs, but they do not create new hair follicles. Neither do conventional hair transplants, which relocate a set number of hairs from the back of the scalp to the front. Our method, in contrast, has the potential to actually grow new follicles using a patient's own cells. This could greatly expand the utility of hair restoration surgery to women and to younger patients -- now it is largely restricted to the treatment of male-pattern baldness in patients with stable disease. We need to establish the origins of the critical intrinsic properties of the newly induced hairs, such as their hair cycle kinetics, color, angle, positioning, and texture" said Dr. Jahoda. "We also need to establish the role of the host epidermal cells that the dermal papilla cells interact with, to make the new structures."
The study, entitled "Microenvironmental reprogramming by three-dimensional culture enables dermal papilla cells to induce de novo human hair follicle growth", was published today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). More work needs to be done before the method can be tested in humans, according to the researchers. The other contributors are James C. Chen and Jane E. Cerise, both at CUMC. 4
1. http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/4/126/126ra34
2. http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hair-loss/pages/introduction.aspx
3. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120321143013.htm
4. http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/2013/10/21/hair-regeneration-method-is-first-to-induce-new-human-hair-growth/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hair-regeneration-method-is-first-to-induce-new-human-hair-growth
Samantha Smith, Chemist Direct, +44 1215414952 Ext: 205, [email protected]
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