Cloned hair follicles to cure baldness
MELBOURNE: Coming soon: Cloned hair follicles to cure baldness , say scientists. In what might become the most effective permanent treatment for the condition, several research teams around the world have successfully cloned human hair follicles — though only in limited amounts.
Though human trials are yet to be held, the cloned follicles have been successfully implanted into soles of feet of lab rodents, giving hair-loss sufferers a ray of hope that a cure is within reach.
Now, the challenge for the scientists at University of Melbourne and St Vincent's Hospital, and for research teams at Berlin Technical University and British company Intercytex, is to increase the number of follicles that can be cloned from a single hair taken from a patient's scalp. At the moment, one hair produces only one or two clones.
"We've got to find a way of increasing the yield," Rod Sinclair, head of the research team at St Vincent's , said.
"We've got to find a way of multiplying one hair extracted into 1000 hairs — what commonly happens in the expansion process is that they lose their ability to induce new hair follicles," he said.
He said cloning hair was difficult because each strand, including its follicle, was a complete organ like a kidney or liver. "Human stem cells are actually pretty weak and that's one of the problems that we've got."
To clone hair, the scientists have to extract stem cells from the hair follicle, multiply them in a culture dish, and then implant them into the scalp. "They have to produce hair that is the right thickness, the right length, the right angle as it leaves the scalp and right degree of curliness."
The scientists have been encouraged by the success of the trials involving mice, says Sinclair , adding that human trials are expected within two years.
