Stem Cells: The future of the treatment of baldness

The year 2011 opens a positive for everyone dealing with the aesthetic and psychological problems caused by androgenetic (the most common form of baldness) baldness, and hoping that science will find an effective solution as soon as possible to prevent gradual hair loss.

The year 2011 opens a positive for everyone dealing with the aesthetic and psychological problems caused by androgenetic (the most common form of baldness) baldness, and hoping that science will find an effective solution as soon as possible to prevent gradual hair loss. In fact, in the early days of this year, the results of two studies were released. One conducted in Germany, the other in the United States, which have produced significant results in the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the progressive thinning of scalp hair. Both studies conducted in different places and different experts have focused their attention on stem cells, which seem to be the key to reaching a definitive therapeutic remedies for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia.

Roland Lauster and Uwe Marx are two researchers from the Technical University of Berlin, along with a team of around 20 staff have completed an enterprise never managed before: growing a follicle of hair from stem cells. In practice, researchers have isolated stem cells taken from animals, and then cultivated them in the laboratory to obtain implantable follicles in bald areas of people suffering from hair loss.

The only drawback is that, currently, the follicle obtained in the laboratory is slightly thinner than a normal hair. However, the two coordinators of the research say confidently that within short time, the follicles obtained from the stem may reach a thickness that permits its deliverability. Within five years, according to their estimates, it should be possible to use the follicles cultured in the laboratory for transplantation. Roland Lauster and Uwe Marx are particularly proud of the results of their research. Thanks to their discovery, many animals will be spared the toxicity tests for new products if experiments can be safely performed on follicles laboratory.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Professor George Cotsarelis found that baldness is caused by a problem of activation of stem cells in hair follicles. Cotsarelis is one of the most respected scholars in the world when it comes to hair loss. In 2007, his study took great interest from international media, since he had managed to grow a large mantle through the skin stem cells on laboratory mice.

The research published recently in the Journal of Clinical Investigation has been directed to the study of human hair. Analyzing samples of scalp belonging to males and females, bald and not bald, Cotsarelis and his team discovered that the lack of hair growth is not attributable to a lower number of stem cells in inactive follicles. But it is the fact that these cells are not operational. Basically, stem cells are "turned off", i.e unable to mature and to establish cell "ancestors". Professor Cotsarelis says, thanks to findings from its research, how the stem cells of dormant follicles can be made operational again. It will be possible to produce new compounds to create revolutionary lotions fall.