It can be frustrating to hear about research that you might benefit from but is still in the “promising” stage. Such is the case with stem cell research related to hair loss. Yet, the glass is half-full because much progress has been and is being made. The apparent resolution to hair loss seems to have been hiding in our scalp all along.

Hair follicles may hibernate, but they do not die. Even after hair loss follicles retain viable stem cells (little fountains of life) that can, with the right kind of nudge, get hair follicles producing again. It’s like a miracle waiting to happen.

Stem Cells

Stem cells are undifferentiated (or pluripotent), meaning they can morph into any of the body’s 200 plus types of cells. Throughout life, they keep their ability to divide and become cellular specialists. If stem cells in dormant hair follicles can be reactivated, it is believed new hair will grow.

Our chameleon stem cells, which contain the template for all cells, start the creation process by producing “progenitor” cells. The progenitor cells can only change into a select few cell types. For those with male or female pattern hair loss, follicle stem cells have stopped producing progenitor (replacement) cells for those worn out or damaged.

Discovery: Follicle Stem Cells Cause Hair Growth

In 2004, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine thought that stem cells inside the bulge of a follicle were the instigators of hair growth. To prove this, they isolated some follicle stem cells and transplanted them into the skin of mice. The procedure produced new hair growth within four weeks.

The researchers looked forward to isolating stem cells taken from the adult human scalp and replanting them in other areas, hoping to produce similar results. They estimated another ten years before people would be able to heal resulting from the use of stem cell transplantation.

Discovery: “Fat” Stem Cells Tell Follicle Stem Cells What To Do

Fast forward to 2011. Though researchers had known stem cells in hair follicles need a signal from the skin to produce hair, where exactly the signal originated was a mystery. Then, in studies at Yale University, researchers located stem cells in the fatty layer of human skin that send out molecular messages prompting hair growth.

Those who have male or female patterned hair loss still have a reserve of live stem cells in their dormant roots, but the roots need a molecular jolt to resume hair growth. The Yale researchers are hoping to get the “fat” stem cells to transmit “grow hair” signals to the stem cells snoozing inside unproductive follicles.

In A Nutshell . . .

1.      Researchers stimulate fatty tissue stem cells
2.      Fatty tissue stem cells transmit the message “grow hair!”
3.      Dormant follicle stem cells receive the message, “grow hair!”
4.      Follicle stem cells wake up
5.      Follicle stem cells get busy creating progenitor cells
6.      Progenitor cells become hair producing cells
7.      Hair resumes growing
 
Let’s hope that soon stem cell therapy will become a routine procedure to alleviate hair loss.

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