The latest approach to solving hair loss - affecting 50 percent of people over the age of 50 - is cloning. According to US News, a study released Monday passed step one in creating technology to replicate healthy hair cells. The eventual goal will be to transplant them in a human and coax their growth with no ill effects.
"We've been able to overcome the first block," study co-author Angela Christiano said.
Previous attempts at hair restoration centered on pre-existing hair follicles, according to Christiano. According to the researcher, hair loss drugs targeting male pattern baldness attempt to stimulate the growth of thin hair resembling "peach fuzz." They haven't been that effective. Nor have other methods such as surgery, which also focuses on the hair that's there.
"Surgical methods, mainly hair transplants, really just shuffle existing hair around from [the] back of scalp to front of scalp," said Dr. Luis Garza of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "The main challenge is to grow a new hair follicle."
The balding man may be the face of hair loss, but he will not be the only beneficiary of follicle cloning.
"About 90 percent of women with hair loss are not strong candidates for hair transplantation surgery because of insufficient donor hair," Christiano said in a university news release. "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."
For five out of the seven trials, cloned hair cells re-inserted to a model of human skin produced new hair. Despite the initial postive results, he process remains a work in progress.
Questions continue to linger as to the costs and potential side effects. Researchers don't know if the incoming hair from cloned cells will be of the right quality. Strange hair could emerge.
"This work helps to climb the mountain, but there are miles to go and more steep terrain ahead," Garza said.
