Written by Richard Simmons | Wednesday, 17 June 2009 | There are 3 comments
The race is on...
Ukmedix News has been avidly following news reports about progress being made with the cloning of hair follicles which could be used to regrow hair for men with male pattern baldness. The British research and development company Intercytex is busy with clinical testing and has even recruited volunteers to take part. The idea is that by taking the cells from existing hair follicles at the side of the head and treating them so that they replicate, men will be able to have their own regrown hair transplanted to the top of their heads.
The race is on however as scientists in Australia are also busy trying to extract stem cells from existing hair follicles and get them to spawn fresh hair follicles in the laboratory. The work which is being done at St Vincent's Hospital and Melbourne University is extremely complicated and need many more years work before it will be ready.
Professor Sinclair who is leading the Australian research explained that stem cells come from the base of the hair follicles in something called the dermal papilla and that the idea is that they will be able to replicate them. However to date they have been unable to get the cells to replicate but they are hopeful they soon will get results. Professor Sinclair also commented on the research being done by Intercytex and said that it was possible they were having problems in getting the “cells to reaggregate”.
Many different research groups around the world are investigating the cloning and genetic growth of hair because they realise that this is the way forward for treating male pattern baldness. Nevertheless it is unlikely that within a decade any serious cloning treatments will be available for men to regrow their own hair and have hair transplanted on their heads. The treatment is also likely to be very expensive.
Until then the best treatment for male pattern baldness is undoubtedly the hair loss drug Propecia.
There are 3 comments on this article.
ebutter said:
This writer is woefully misinformed when he says it is unlikely any cloning treatments will be available within a decade. He fails to realize that Aderans is in Phase II of its trials, and Histogen and Follica are also well on their way to refining their stem cell treatments. This writer simply took a quote from the Australian scientists who were saying their own experiments were at least 10 years away from producing viable results. Their speculation about Incercytex is just that. Very shoddy journalism.
Richard said:
Actually if you read the article carefully it says "Many different research groups around the world are investigating the cloning and genetic growth of hair". Just because we don't mention them by name doesn't mean we aren't aware of them. We also said it'll be a decade before the cloning treatment will be available for the regular guy. Now we'll see whose right..
Flavio said:
Hair cloning will be a great improvement but it's not a definitive solution. Basically, it's just a more sophisticated hair transplant and it will require several procedures.
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