Gene Therapy

dr_antonio_alvi_armani — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 03:28:00 GMT

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.

Cloning

dr_antonio_alvi_armani — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 03:27:00 GMT

There are currently two methods of cloning being developed by researchers. The first is called in-vivo cloning. It involves cutting the hair follicle at different levels to produce more than one follicle. Dr. Kim from Korea has made significant contributions in this method. He has found that by cutting the follicle midway at the stem cell level, that two follicles can be reproduced from one. This new growing hair is thinner in diameter than the normal hair follicle. The cutting must be made very accurately at a very specific level, transversely, to produce very specific stem cells.

The other cloning method being researched is called in-vitro cloning. In this method the stem cells from the hair follicle are taken and grown in a petri dish. In this way new duplicate cells are cloned. Later these new cells can be inserted back into the scalp instead of follicles with hair. It is believed that hair may be able to grow from the cells themselves. There are five or six centres in the world trying to perfect this technique. The perfection of this technique of cloning would mean that even the man or woman with very few hairs could have thousands of cells replicated in a petri dish. From a single or only a few hairs thousands of hair cells can be grown in a lab that can later be injected to grow hair.

Look for developments in cloning techniques. The next major innovation in hair loss treatment will undoubtedly come from cloning research. The future is bright.

The Future in Hair Surgical Treatments

Gene Therapy

Cloning