Scientists Are Using Neogenesis To Cure Your Hair Loss
No, not you, bald eagle; you're cool.
Stem cell researchers from Durham University and Columbia University have discovered that it’s possible to regrow hair follicles in human skin. Even though it’s only been tested on mice, the researchers are confident that they’re taking the right steps towards developing a solution for alopecia and other forms of hair-loss.
Recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers (including a Angela Christiano, who suffers from alopecia herself) took cells from donor hair follicles, called “dermal papillae,” and were able to grow new hair from the cells in a process called “neogenesis.”
Christiano said that the discovery ”has the potential to transform the medical treatment of hair loss,” and 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.”
This marks the very first time science has been able to generate new hair growth; usually the neogenesis fails because the dermal papillae lose their ability to induce hair growth in a petri dish. Slap the cells onto some infant foreskins (post-circumcision) instead, and suddenly – hair growth galore! They then grafted the cells onto mice, and the hair growth continued.
Next up – grafting them onto bald people! (We can only assume).
(via Forbes, image via Pam Waggener)
- Injections of your own blood can also combat hair loss
- Here’s a video on the science of baldness
- Did you know science has discovered a cause of male-pattern balding?
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