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| Hair Loss Cure? Scientists Find Way To Regrow Hair With Person's Own Cells |
Since science is forever evolving and people are always looking for ways to
find the best and most efficient solutions, they now came up with hair cloning.
This new technique in hair restoration
involves the removal of a small patch of cells from the back of the scalp that
are involved in hair formation and then culture them in a petri dish in a
laboratory setting to increase their numbers. Once this is done, the cloned
hairs are then transplanted into the recipient area.
Professor Angela Christiano from the
dermatology and genetics department in Columbia University in New York City is
the lead author of this study. She said, “This approach has the potential to
transform the medical treatment of hair loss.”
Her interest in such study was sparked by
her own experience. She was struck with the type of hair loss that was called
alopecia areata, which reduced her luxurious hair into bald spots. She was
unfortunate to catch this genetic condition which runs in her family.
Together with a team of researchers from
Durham University, they made this discovery after examining rodents and their
ability to regenerate hair after their skin cells that produce hair were
harvested and then transplanted back on their skin.
Similar attempts were also done on human subjects;
however this has proven to be fruitless. This is because the cells mysteriously
lose their ability to generate hair follicles after they are transplanted. They
simply revert to basic skin cells when the dermal papilla cells (cells found on
the base of hair follicles) are placed in conventional, two-dimensional tissue
culture.
Despite that, the researchers still saw the
possibility of these hair transplants to mimic the replication process that
occurs in rodent cells.
One of Christiano's partners from Durham
University, a certain Dr. Colin Jahoda, they noticed that the rodent papilla
cells formed clumps while in culture, and the human cells did not. He surmised
that the clumps may be necessary. This led him to change the usual one-cell
layer on the petri dish and used the “hanging drop culture” which is an older method.
The results of this technique created a
difference. Out of seven samples, five were able to grow new hair for six
weeks. DNA tests confirmed that the new follicles were human, and these also
matched the donors.
Even with the successful turnout, they
still believe that this process still remains to be a work in progress.
There are a number of factors that still
has to be considered before they open this procedure out to the public. First
is the cost of the procedure and the potential side effects. The researchers
are also quite uncertain if the cloned hair follicles will come out to be of
the right quality, otherwise strange hair could result.
If these techniques do come out to be
successful, these will provide more hope for men and women who are suffering
from excessive hair loss. They will no longer worry about the scarring or
limited hair donors.
Professor Christiano said, “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.
This technique may still have to be
perfected, but if it does turn out to be successful this can certainly help a
large chunk of hair loss sufferers whatever the cause may be. The patients are
able to actually grow new hair follicles using their own cells. So this means
that you don't have to worry about thinning in balding areas or if the number
of donor hair is severely low.
Watch Professor Angela Christiano talks about New Hair Loss Treatment
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