Studies in hair loss should help plucking

Hair loss: A bald head can be avoided by plucking hair?

04/13/2015

An average person loses up to 100 hairs every day. If they do not regrow, they talk about permanent hair loss. Many shampoos, tinctures and pills for hair loss are offered on the market - but usually do not work. Researchers have now discovered that ripping hair can help address the problem.

Avoid balding by hair trapping
Between 70 and 100 hairs a person loses on average per day. If these do not regrow, one speaks of permanent hair loss. Circular hair loss (alopecia areata) is one of the most common forms. Women are less affected than men. The causes of hair loss are manifold. For example, it can be caused by iron deficiency or hyperthyroidism. Also, metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus or Crohn's disease, bulimia and anorexia can cause hair loss. The offer, which is to help against hair loss, ranges from shampoos over tinctures to pills. Frequently, however, the products bring nothing or help only with a certain form of hair loss. As scientists have now discovered, hair picking may help prevent baldness.

Hair escaped in certain patterns
The „world“ reports in a recent article about the study of researchers led by Cheng-Ming Chuong from the University of California. For the investigation they have each pulled up 200 hairs from the back of mice in certain patterns. The scientists write in the journal „Cell“, that the spots - as expected - did not remain bald, but regrow hair. However, not only grew the 200 hair, but up to 1,200 hair. Apparently the hair follicles are caused by the Zupferei to produce more replenishment than would have been necessary.

New treatment of hair loss conceivable
„It is a good example of how basic research can produce results that may very quickly translate into therapeutic use“, Chuong said. „This work highlights a potential new target for the treatment of alopecia, a form of hair loss.“ A few years ago, the scientist and his colleague Chih-Chiang Chen, a dermatologist at National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan, had been thinking about what causes hair follicles that are injured to affect neighboring cells. They wanted to find out how the cells do that and if they could possibly use this behavior to treat hair loss.

Hair follicles send out stress signals
So the researchers teased the hair out of the back of the mice in certain patterns. It turned out that when they plucked 200 hairs out of a six millimeter diameter area, nothing extraordinary happened and the hair regrowed normally. However, as soon as she plucked the region down, the sudden sprouting of hair began. The scientists were able to show on a molecular level that the hair follicles emit stress signals by expelling inflammatory proteins that cause the immune cells of the body to migrate to the plucked region. There they emit additional messengers, such as the tumor necrosis factor alpha, which stimulates the hair follicles to grow new hair.

Research could also play a role in other areas
Biologists get such communication „Quorum sensing“ called. This term actually comes from the microbiology: If bacteria or unicellular organisms, for example, have a certain population size, so to speak come in a kind of population stress, then they emit appropriate chemical signals that prevent further growth of the population, said the „world“. Chuong, one of the top scientists in the field of follicle research, sees beyond the treatment of hair loss other areas for which his research could play a role: „The same could happen with physiological or pathogenic processes in other organs“, so the expert. „However, they are often not as easy to observe as the regeneration of hair.“ (Ad)