Stem cell therapy makes hair grow again

New hair for baldies through stem cell therapy

04/19/2012

A stem cell treatment could sprout new hair in the bearer. Japanese researchers led by Professor Takashi Tsuji of the Tokyo University of Science have re-established hair growth using stem cell-derived hair follicles - but so far only in mice.

The scientists tested in their study the possibilities for the regeneration of hair growth on hairless mice. They found that certain adult stem cells can be used to form new hair follicles to help the bald mice grow a fur again. As the researchers report in the journal "Nature Communications", the "current study shows the potential, not only for the regeneration of hair, but also for the realization of a biotechnological organ replacement with adult somatic stem cells."

Implanted hair follicles provide new hair growth
For decades, scientists around the world have been researching ways to prevent hair loss and make new hair grow on the wearer. Professor Takashi Tsuji and colleagues seem to have made a breakthrough here. They let new hair sprout on the bald skin of mice - with the help of adult stem cells. Researchers used animal-derived hair and follicle germs derived from stem cells, whereupon "biotechnological hair follicles assumed the correct structures, shapes and connections with surrounding tissues such as the epidermis, hair and nerve fibers". The hair follicles showed "full functionality, including the ability to repeat hair cycles", write Prof. Takashi Tsuji and colleagues in their article.

Hair loss and baldness treatment at the earliest in ten years
According to the scientists, the effect observed in the mice can also be transferred to humans, so that there is hope that new hair will be sprouted in the future with the help of stem cell treatment. Before the first human clinical trials can be conducted, however, researchers say more research is needed. At the earliest in three to five years, studies could take place with humans, explained the co-author Koh-ei Toyoshima. At least another ten years will pass before a treatment for the treatment of bald heads is published, according to the scientists. The researchers see the possibilities of their treatment approach, however, not limited to the hair regeneration, but are already thinking of other ways to "realize biotechnological organ replacement with adult somatic stem cells." Possibly in this way also teeth or complex organ structures regenerate, said Tsuji and colleagues , (Fp)

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