A New Discovery to Battle Hair Loss Brings Hope
Hair loss has become a top reason many people across the globe may feel insecure or have lower levels of self esteem. While the issue can more commonly affect men, it also happens in women and can happen to any race or age group.
Because things outside of hereditary factors are causing hair loss today - like toxins in the air and the food we eat, as well as elevated stress levels and damage to the hair through mistreatment, the number of people suffering from the problem is on the rise.
Loads of treatments, from oil vitamins to topical treatments and other remedies are constantly being introduced to the market as an answer to the problem.
Now, a group of researchers and professors have made a medical breakthrough that can help with the root of the problem of hair loss.
According to an article posted by Penn Current, Xiaowei “George” Xu and his team of researchers uncovered a new method that helps increase and make additional amounts of epithelial stem cells - which are necessary for hair growth.
Xu is an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and dermatology at the Perelman School of Medicine, his coworkers who worked on the discovery reportedly included experts from the Department of Dermatology at Penn Medicine, the Department of Biology in the School of Arts & Sciences, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
According to the articles printed by Penn Current, once they made this discovery, the team, added “three genes to dermal fibroblasts-a type of human skin cell-and converted them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can differentiate into any type of cell in the body. The researchers then converted iPSCs into a large number of epithelial stem cells that are usually found in a hair follicles bulge.”
This finding is an important one in the plight of curing hair loss woes because its the first time that reproductions of epithelial hair follicles were made possible.
“I think we can probably make that happen in 10 years,” Xu was quoted as saying. “I’m pretty confident because we are very close. There is a lot of promise, but there is still a long way to go. But I think it’s very much possible.”
Hairfear - 3-12-2014
