Gene Therapy
Another method to restore lost hair that is likely to emerge in the near future is gene therapy. Gene therapy promises the potential to grow new hair follicles, as opposed to just stimulating dormant follicles from growing hair again. Several researchers around the world have begun work on gene therapy to restore hair in lab mice and have displayed some degree of success.
The idea behind gene therapy is to correct an inherited or acquired condition that prevents hair growth by introducing a DNA sequence (a genetic chemical) into the balding scalp. The introduced DNA sequence itself does not correct the problem causing balding itself, but it creates a sequence of chemical transactions that enter into the patient’s cells themselves. The cells then start producing themselves the proteins necessary to give the skin the ability to produce new hair follicle cells.
Several researchers have been looking at gene therapy for sometime now. One of the leaders in this field is Dr. Elaine Fuchs at the University of Chicago. She has been able to successfully convert normal skin cells into hair follicle cells using gene therapy on mice. These mice have displayed impressive new hair growth in balding areas. While this has been produced on mice so far, there are some side effects that include growth of tumor cells. This is a serious complication that may endanger the future success of gene therapy as a treatment method. FDA approval will be delayed if tumor cells continue to grow along with normal cells. This complication has yet to be worked out, and others may become evident as further research is conducted. However, Dr. Fuchs is confident that these side effects can be eliminated with further development of gene therapy methods.