Health News
2007-05-17
Bye-bye,
baldness?
Hair loss may be
reversible, according to scientists at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine who have helped create hair
cells on the
Hair loss may be
reversible, according to scientists at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine who have helped create hair
cells on the skin of mice.
The human head
has 100,000 tiny hair follicles; each follicle grows a
single hair. While it was thought that damaged follicles
could never be replaced, the Penn study shows that new
follicles, and consequently new hair, can be produced
by a single gene, called wnt.
In the
experiment, reports the BBC, small sections of the outer
skin layer were removed from mice. The removal
encouraged stem cell activity in that area and the
production of hair follicles. If the wnt gene was
blocked, no follicles were created; if the wnt gene was
stimulated, even more follicles resulted.
Professor Des
Tobin, from the University of Bradford in the U.K., told
the BBC: “This paper provides convincing evidence
that the skin has remarkable powers of regeneration,
not just repair as previously known. Under the
conditions peculiar to the wound-healing environment, the
highly complex hair follicle can be created anew from
apparently unremarkable cells of the healing epidermis
and its underlying dermis.” (The
Advocate)
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