Stem cell technology used in search for the holy grail of hair treatments: a cure for baldness

Stem cell technology used in search for the holy grail of hair treatments: a cure for baldness

By Erin Ellis, Vancouver Sun
October 25, 2013
Source: vancouversun.com

Hisae Nakamura, director of research and development for RepliCel, with a device used to inject cells into the scalp to stimulate hair growth. The company’s process replicates cells from hair follicles on the back of the scalp, which are typically resistant to the hormone that causes baldness, and injects them into bald areas.

Photograph by: Nick Procaylo , PNG

A cure for baldness doesn’t leap to mind when one ponders the next advance in stem cell research, but whoever manages to do it stands to become very rich.

Scientists around the world have already grown liver and brain cells in the laboratory using cell samples from humans. Others — including some working for a Vancouver-based company — are hard at work trying to find a way to nurture new hair growth on shiny heads.

“It’s a market where people spend a ton of money,” says David Hall, CEO of RepliCel Life Sciences Inc., a biotech firm with offices in downtown Vancouver that has attracted the attention of Japan’s Shisheido Co. (more about: Shiseido) The cosmetic giant paid $4.2 million in July to share RepliCel’s research on a highly speculative technology for treating hair loss.

Hall, who says his own flowing locks have no high-tech enhancement, acknowledges that plenty of people think hair cloning research is frivolous. But those usually aren’t people who are losing their hair, particularly at a young age.

“It’s just not perceived as a medical need, but I think there are a lot of people who would say it’s important to them,” Hall says. “There’s definitely a mental health aspect for young men and for women in their 30s and 40s. It can be very devastating to their self-esteem.”

Hair transplants are still the “gold standard” for hair restoration, he says, but their success relies on the skill of the surgeon and a supply of healthy follicles from elsewhere on the scalp.

The RepliCel technique was pioneered by company co-founders Dr. Rolf Hoffmann, a German dermatologist, and Vancouver researcher Kevin McElwee. Hair follicles are harvested from the back of a person’s scalp, where hair is typically resistant to the hormone that causes baldness. That tissue is transferred to the lab, where researchers isolate dermal sheath cup cells from the base of the follicle. Those cells are replicated by the millions over a period of three months, later to be injected into bald areas at the top of the scalp using a specially designed device.

“What initially attracted me to this concept is it’s not a drug,” says Hall. “The treatment uses the patient’s own cells to replace hormone-compromised hair follicle cells in the bald areas. The concept of treating cellular deficits with your own cells is elegant. It’s the same concept we’re using in our other treatment in development for chronic tendinosis.”

The company hopes to have a clinical trial with 120 men test the procedure in Germany in coming months as it works its way through regulatory requirements that could ultimately lead to licensing in Europe, the U.S. and Japan. It has already completed an initial trial of 19 subjects that found no serious adverse reactions six months after injections.

But RepliCel’s game plan isn’t to bring its cell cloning all the way to market, Hall says. Rather it wants to prove the effectiveness of the technology in the hopes it will be purchased by a much larger company.

(Hall was formerly the chief financial officer of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Vancouver biotech darling that rode high during a boom early last decade after it developed a drug-coated cardiac stent. U.S. medtech firm Boston Scientific became a partner on that technology and still sells the stents, but Angiotech faltered in the 2008 financial crisis and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011.)

Until recently, RepliCel’s main direct competitor in this area was a biotech start-up called Aderans Research Institute based in Atlanta, Ga. It ran clinical trials on a process described as “hair multiplication or hair cloning,” although it targeted different cell from the hair follicle than RepliCel. The work was initially bankrolled by Japan-based Aderans, a multinational company that started as a wig-maker in the ’60s, eventually buying Bosley, a chain of hair transplant clinics. In 2012, Aderans bought Hair Club, formerly known as Hair Club for Men, the U.S. company that spawned a generation of testimonial-style late-night TV commercials.

Vern Liebmann, CEO of Aderans Research Institute, said in a recent telephone interview that his company is now “in hibernation” since Aderans pulled its funding.

“It’s perceived as high-risk and in the current climate — going back to 2007-2008 — funds for pioneering-type efforts are hard to come by.”

Liebmann said investors are interested in hair treatments because of the immense market they could potentially tap, but bringing a biological treatment to fruition means following the same strict regulatory process required by pharmaceutical companies before a drug can be sold. That takes deep pockets.

“If RepliCel didn’t have Shisheido, they’d be in a world of hurt,” he said. “They got lucky. We didn’t.”

The companies are all chasing the estimated $3-billion per year spent on hair restoration treatments around the world. The market could be even larger if women — who are turning to hair replacement surgery in greater numbers — also buy into newer procedures.

Christine Janus, executive director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Skin Patient Alliance, says hair loss is a serious condition for women and it’s becoming more common.

“For women, when you’re starting to lose your hair — no matter what age you are — it really packs an emotional wallop. You can feel less attractive, you can feel less sexy. It turns out a lot of our identity is tied up in our hair, ” she said in a telephone interview. “It’s how we present ourselves to the outside world.”

Androgenetic alopecia is the medical name for male pattern baldness (thinning hair and eventual baldness starting at the temples, moving to the crown and top of the head) and female-pattern baldness (general thinning.) They’re both caused by a combination of genetic predisposition and hormonal changes that are not particularly well understood in women. In men, testosterone is converted to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which causes follicles to slow and eventually stop producing hair.

Once it starts, says Janus, both women and men are launched on a conflicted emotional journey.

“There’s a real dichotomy. You feel bad because you’re losing your hair, losing who you were. Then you feel guilty for feeling bad because it’s only hair. So the psychological hit isn’t just once, it’s twice. Society tells you you shouldn’t care, but you know you look weird.”

Another reason for a jaundiced view of the search for a cure to baldness — the holy grail of hair treatments — is that it’s been dominated by snake-oil salesmen for decades. These schemes have played on the emotions of men and women worried about losing their sex appeal or even their edge in the business and professional world.

But Janus says anyone who can make an effective product will find a world of grateful buyers.

“Are they playing on insecurities and are they making money?” asks Janus. “If they’re selling stuff that really doesn’t work, then I think they’re taking advantage. If they actually have a product that works very well, like Rogaine or implants or wigs ... If they’re selling something that is going to give a person — male or female — that sense of self back, then they provide a service. And it’s a good thing.”

Dr. Jeff Donovan, a Toronto dermatologist who specializes in hair transplants, agrees the hair-restoration industry has a dismal reputation because it’s short on hard research and long on hard sells.

“It makes it a lot more difficult for people doing good work to get their data seen … How do you get the public to understand that this is really backed by science — which is what is so desperately needed — versus someone who just brings a product to market and licenses it under nutritional supplements, let’s say, and with strong marketing the public can be convinced that both of those are equally promising.”

Donovan advises consumers to wait for evidence from objective clinical trials before buying into anything.

And like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments already on the market — such as minoxidil cream and finasteride pills — anything new will probably work to some extent on some people, he predicts. Donovan has heard RepliCel’s Hoffman present early findings at a European dermatology conference and says he’s intrigued by the possibility that it could one day be added to the mix.

“These treatments don’t work in everyone and don’t work in advanced hair loss. Minoxidil works differently than Propecia (finasteride), one’s a topical treatment and one’s a pill, and the two combined work even better. So here we have a third treatment (RepliCel’s) that works even differently. It’s going to be exciting to see if it does anything and, if it does, even a little bit, then it can be combined with minoxidil as a treatment. Because anything you can do to help hair is going to be good.”

eellis@vancouversun.com

Not just for Nobel Prizes anymore

A team from the Tokyo University of Science made headlines in 2012 by implanting laboratory-made human hair follicle germs on the necks and heads of bald mice which later grew tiny mohawks of straight black hair.

That work builds on the groundbreaking discoveries of 2012 Nobel Prize co-winner Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, who found a way to turn mature cells from mice into immature stem cells that can then be programmed to grow into any type of cell in the body. Until then researchers had concentrated on embryonic stem cells — harvested from animal and human embryos a few days after fertilization — which are known as undifferentiated cells, capable of multiplying into all of the body’s specialized tissues.

Now labs can create induced pluripotent stem cells, meaning they are capable of becoming any type of cell, from mature human cells. That’s the basis upon which other scientists have grown liver tissue and more recently brain tissue in a laboratory setting.

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Scientists Grow New Hair In A Lab, But Don't Rush To Buy A Comb

Scientists Grow New Hair In A Lab, But Don't Rush To Buy A Comb  

by Michaeleen Doucleff

October 21, 2013 5:27 PM

Source: npr.org



 

Maybe someday Jerry won't be laughing

at George's follicularly challenged scalp.

 But despite scientific advances there's

still no cure for baldness.

NBC/NBC via Getty Images

With a tiny clump of cells from a man's scalp, scientists have grown new human hair in the laboratory.

But don't get too excited. A magic cure for baldness isn't around the corner. The experimental approach is quite limited and years from reaching the clinic — for many reasons.

The scientists have grown the hair only on a tiny patch of human skin grafted onto the back of a mouse. And as wispy locks go, the strands are pretty pathetic. Some hairs were white, and some didn't even make their way out of the skin.

Nevertheless, the proof-of-concept study, reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, overcame a major obstacle to increasing the quantity of hair on your head.

Currently, people with hair loss have two options: drugs and surgical transplantation. "The drugs available work reasonably well at maintaining the hair you have," says Angela Christiano, a professor of dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center who led the study. "And with transplantation, you can move hair around the head, like from front to back. But neither [method] is known for being a way to actually grow new hair."

For that, scientists needed a way to make new hair follicles.

All human hair grows inside follicles, which are little tubes. When you're a baby developing inside the womb, cells in the skin decide where to put the follicles — and thus, your hair. Follicles go on legs, arms and head. But you don't get any on your palms, the soles of your feet and a few other places.

Once you're born, this pattern of hair doesn't change. The follicles may decide to go kaput later in life or start producing peach fuzz, as with male pattern baldness. But your skin never makes new follicles.

That's where Christiano and her team at Columbia University have made progress. Working together with Colin Jahoda in Durham University in England, they figured out a way to trick adult skin into growing new follicles and eventually new hair.

They took a special type of skin cell from seven men with male pattern baldness and grew them up in a Petri dish. Previous studies had just let the cells replicate on a 2D surface, but Christiano and her colleagues coerced the cells into clumping together and forming little balls. That slight variation made all the difference in the world.

The team put the spheres of cells inside a patch of human skin and grafted it onto a mouse. Six weeks later, the cells grew whole new hair follicles and tiny wisps of hair. The procedure worked in five of the seven men tested.

But the hair follicles weren't normal. They were missing sebaceous glands that keep the skin moist. And the hair grew out of the skin at funny angles.

"Before we can move into clinical trials, the procedure would have to be animal-free," Christiano says. "And we need much more hairs than we have. But conservatively, I'd love to have the method in clinical trials in three to five years."

Other scientists in the field are a bit more cautious.

"You can ask anyone how long it will take something in the future to happen, and the answer will always be three to five years," says Luis Garza, a dermatologist at Johns Hopkins University who wasn't involved in the study.

"Any time you grow cells in the laboratory and inject them back inside people, there's a chance the cells could overgrow," Garza tells Shots. That means the cells could form tumors or even some cancers. Plus, a technique like this, Garza speculates, would be much more expensive than regular hair transplantation.

Nevertheless, the findings are a major advance in the field, he says. "Before this method goes into clinical trials, we've got a mountain climb,and it's miles of steep terrain ahead," he says. "But the findings of Dr. Christiano definitely get us closer."

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Hair loss study ‘an important step’

Hair loss study ‘an important step’

Monday 21st October 2013, 11:30AM BST.
Source: thisisguernsey.com

 

A new study has raised hopes of a new treatment for hair loss.

 

A pioneering technique that generates new hair follicles could help to banish baldness, research suggests.

For the first time, scientists have shown that it is possible to renew follicles capable of sprouting human hair.

The follicles grow naturally from clumps of cells called dermal papillae that play a pivotal role in hair growth.

Scientists harvested dermal papillae from seven human donors, cloned them in the laboratory, and transplanted them into human skin grafted onto the backs of mice.

In five of the tests, the transplants resulted in new hair growth that lasted at least six weeks. DNA analysis confirmed that the new hair follicles were human and a genetic match to the donors.

Although the research is at an early state, the British and American team is confident clinical trials could begin “in the near future”.

Professor Angela Christiano, from Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, said: “Current hair-loss medications tend to slow the loss of hair follicles or potentially stimulate the growth of existing hairs, but they do not create new hair follicles. Neither do conventional hair transplants, which relocate a set number of hairs from the back of the scalp to the front.

“Our method, in contrast, has the potential to actually grow new follicles using a patient’s own cells. This could greatly expand the utility of hair restoration surgery to women and to younger patients – now it is largely restricted to the treatment of male-pattern baldness in patients with stable disease.”

Dermal papillae are small cells found at the base of hair follicles. The research develops earlier work led by Professor Colin Jahoda at the University of Durham showing that in rodents dermal papillae could easily be harvested and transplanted back into the skin.

In rodents, the transplanted cells tended to clump together spontaneously and reprogramme the recipient’s skin to grow new hair follicles.

The new research followed the lessons learned in rodents by encouraging human cells to clump together in the same way.

“Dermal papilla cells give rise to hair follicles, and the notion of cloning hair follicles using inductive dermal papilla cells has been around for 40 years or so,” said Prof Jahoda, who co-led the research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“However, once the dermal papilla cells are put into conventional, two-dimensional tissue culture, they revert to basic skin cells and lose their ability to produce hair follicles. So we were faced with a Catch-22: how to expand a sufficiently large number of cells for hair regeneration while retaining their inductive properties.”

The technique may offer new hope to women as well as men who suffer from baldness, say the scientists. It also raises the prospect of new treatments for burns victims.

“About 90% of women with hair loss are not strong candidates for hair transplantation surgery because of insufficient donor hair,” said Prof Christiano. “This method offers the possibility of inducing large numbers of hair follicles or rejuvenating existing hair follicles, starting with cells grown from just a few hundred donor hairs. It could make hair transplantation available to individuals with a limited number of follicles, including those with female-pattern hair loss, scarring alopecia, and hair loss due to burns.”

Prof Jahoda said more work was needed to explore the properties of hair generated by newly grown follicles, and the interaction between transplanted dermal papillae and host cells.

He added: “Ultimately we think that this study is an important step toward the goal of creating a replacement skin that contains hair follicles for use with, for example, burn patients.”

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Who says the rugs don't work?

Who says the rugs don't work?

Phil Hilton, Sunday 8 March 2009
Source: theguardian.com

Getting a wig fitted - Former Nuts editor Phil Hilton gets given a full head of hair and roadtests it on the streets of London 

Logically it doesn't make sense for men to worry about baldness - it's largely inevitable, entirely unremarkable and doesn't hurt. And strictly speaking, feeling insecure about losing your hair is in itself unmanly - a real man should deal with anything short of international armed conflict as part of life's big blokey punch on the upper arm.

But hair loss is serious. I discovered this at a very early age. I was, in a sense, brought up collectively - by my mum, my dad and my dad's big 1970s toupee. I've had a rich, loving and close relationship with my father. He's taught me many wonderful and useful things about life, the arts and buying car insurance. His wig taught me that being bald was bad and that talking about Daddy's pretend hair in restaurants was frowned upon. The wig and I never really hit it off - I wanted him to give it up and to face the world with an honest scalp. But now it feels like I should reconsider - it's time to make peace with my father's wigs.

In the last few months, aged 74, he's stopped wearing the faux hair. I'd like to say that after a long family walk in the country we jointly reached this decision and laughed about it over a glass of wine and a selection of fetching baseball caps. In fact, he lost it. I don't mean became furious and disenchanted with the hairpiece. I mean he mislaid it. Somewhere in his flat it's lurking, waiting to reclaim his head.

In my earliest memories he is pre-wig and sporting a long band of hair teased over his otherwise bald head. Then suddenly my father grew hair. Quite a lot of hair actually, curly, dark, sitting high and proud on his head and held on with thick strips of doubled-sided tape (I watched the process in the bathroom, fascinated).

I think my view of my dad's "piece" was distorted by the fact that I knew it was there. Wigs deceive the eye if you're not looking for them - like camouflaged animals. Once David Attenborough points out the lion in the long grass, he becomes all too obvious. To me my father had a massive lion on his head. The toupee seemed ludicrously visible - a colossal, attention-seeking fiasco. Nothing like hair; I saw it as a jaunty hat made of brown strands. I expected my dad to be followed around London by a mob of tourists taking snaps and shouting: "There's Phil Hilton's dad and his huge, unconvincing wig!"

I advised my father to give it up many times, told him that as he grew older the chances of him being blessed with hair like Liam Gallagher were slim, but year after year he held on to the toupee.

Now I've just turned 45, and although I couldn't be described as bald, I couldn't be described as having a full head of hair either. In fact, on reflection, I could probably be described as bald. Now it's time to honestly examine my own feelings about hair loss.

I crop my hair short, a reaction to my dad's approach. Ostensibly I'm too well-adjusted and modern to care about the increasingly large gaps between my weedy remaining strands. But if I had the chance to magically reverse the process? If I could instantly regrow my hair in a way that would be undetectable and that no one would ever discover (and if they did I could kill them painlessly and without the usual guilt, criminal proceedings or eternity in hell) - of course I would! In an instant, without hesitation! I want to look out from under a floppy fringe, I want to wake up with bed-head, I want a quiff like Elvis.

Losing my hair is my youth and vigour slipping away. It's like referring to the Kaiser Chiefs in public - part of you shrivels. It's my body laughing at my attempts to remain youthful: the gym-going, the bumbling wardrobe updates, the attempts at sexual intercourse (kidding!).

I can hear the chorus of politically correct readers rushing to reassure me that bald can be attractive too. But how many women return from a first date enthusing about running their fingers across a man's gorgeous scalp? ("God, I love the feel of sebaceous grease!") The most cursory of investigations reveals that, despite the protests, women prefer hair. I searched through Cosmopolitan magazine's 25 Sexiest Men imagining I'd hit a baldy by, say, number 12 but none of the sexiest men are sexy in a bald way. The current crop of lust objects includes the irritatingly bouffant George Clooney and Russell Brand, who seems practically made of hair.

So if I search my soul I can see why my dad, losing his hair in his 20s, adopted the hairpiece solution. He was young in the age of Cossack hairspray, when even real hair was blow-dried and shaped into a toupee-like helmet.

Already I sensed a kinship with the object I'd loathed all those years - I knew the next phase of my quest would be a difficult one, but my journey of self-discovery would inevitably lead me deep into the murky hair-loss therapy industry.

The various pate-covering technologies are estimated to be worth $3.5bn every year in the US alone. The oddity is that 40% of men under 35 will lose their hair, so we are spending to avoid an entirely normal and unremarkable state of affairs - like investing money to alleviate the problem of ears at the side of the head.

There are the drugs Minoxidil and Finasteride, which turn up in mega brands Rogaine and Propecia; there are the various surgical treatments; there are myriad herbal and natural methods of hair regrowth (including, excitingly, emu oil). Research group Mintel's latest findings indicate that the hair-loss industry is experiencing an upturn after years of decline. In 2007 sales of Rogaine suddenly jumped more than 25%, to $42m, after the introduction of an easy-to-apply mousse.

Yet surely the wig, the syrup, the source of some of Morecambe and Wise's weakest material must have suffered? Don't underestimate the hairpiece - toupees are back.

Barry Stevens, general secretary of the Trichological Society, says: "There does seem to have been a revival partly because they are much better than the old-fashioned rugs, which were really awful." He attributes the improvement in quality to a new mastery of the membrane that holds the strands of hair and mimics the scalp. A natural hairline begins with scalp showing through. The hair becomes more dense further up the head. The old wigs started too densely and gave themselves away, but now it is possible to create the illusion that the scalp is visible through the "hairline".

Along with this improvement in quality they have also rebranded - no longer called wigs, they are now "non-surgical hair replacements" or "hair systems". This terminology reeks of reassuring modernity and efficiency.

There are thousands of ways to find a wig, but only one hairpiece maker is mentioned on the Trichological Society website, and I know instantly that this is the man I need to help me in my attempt to learn how my father felt all those years.

Graham Wake of the London Hair Clinic meets me at his door. He is slim, likeable, and seems genuinely passionate about helping people concerned about hair loss. His Holborn office is completely unmarked from the street - it is a safe house for the receding. Oh, and he has a well-blessed scalp (no, I've no idea and he's not saying).

Wake explains how a bespoke, top-of-the-range "hair system" is made in 2009. Real human hair is woven strand by strand into a "lace", the membrane that mimics the scalp. A mould is taken of the client's head and the lace is cut and shaped to precisely fit their dome. The hair itself is taken from the heads of people in Eastern Europe and a wigful costs Wake between £60 and £200. The completed wig retails for around £650, but elsewhere you can pay as much as £2,000. The hair is attached to the base by an army of skilled wig-makers in the Far East.

Wake says that, along with the lace, there's been a big advance in adhesives - he uses hypo-allergenic medical glues invented for attaching prosthetic limbs to patients. These can bond to the scalp for up to six weeks, which even enables the wearer to swim in his wig. Finally the hairpiece is attached and cut by a trained stylist directly on the client's head. "This is psychologically so important. To sit there and see your hair being cut - you walk out feeling that it's your own."

Wake speaks with conviction about the damaging effects of early baldness: "Guys often come in depressed. Mums will come in with young sons. The men have often thought about it for a long time and researched it on the web. A lot of people come in through online forums, having read about the company." He talks convincingly about the transforming effect a "system" (Wake never says "wig") can have on a man whose self-belief has been crushed by the departure of his hair.

"Once they have it fitted, they have more confidence with the opposite sex, they make more effort with clothes and their appearance. A lot of them while still bald think: 'What's the point when I'm stuck with this hair situation?' It's a second life."

Hoping to find a toupee-wearer happy to talk about the rejuvenating effect of the hair system, I remember that my own father was once one of these anxious young men.

"I lost my hair in my 20s - it was early to lose it, and it knocked my confidence," he says. "I paid £100 for my first wig around 1969. At the time I was a manager in a factory full of women. I walked straight in and let them all see me at the same time - the comments were on the whole very positive. I felt more confident, more complete."

My father was unusual in coming out so boldly. Graham Wake has advised many clients about making the transition from his secret lair back into society. "Try and take a couple of weeks off work to get used to yourself. I tell people not to have a low, three-finger hairline; I ask them to let me recede it and thin it out for them. I advise them to try to go back to work looking as similar as possible to before the fitting. If they are asked about the hair directly, I recommend a white lie along the lines of 'I spent a lot of money having my hair done - I've had some extensions fitted'. I don't think people should say: 'I had a piece done.' As long as you don't admit you've had a hairpiece, people won't really know."

For me to truly understand my father and his hair, I realise in a moment of clarity that I too should have one of Wake's "special" haircuts.

I need to look into a mirror and see myself with a wig to truly understand why so many men come to rely on them. Wake promises that he can match the grey in my hair and come up with something pretty impressive. I'm haunted by images of myself running into colleagues outside the salon with a vast "Brian May" or staring at my alternative-hair self in the mirror weeping over every pointlessly bald moment of my life.

When the day for me to meet my "non-surgical hair replacement" finally arrives, I'm genuinely nervous - being a man, this manifests itself in a stream of terrible adolescent jokes. Resting on Wake's hand, the "hair system" looks like the harrowing part of one of those documentaries about the illegal sale of rare animal skins - it is a limp monkey/rodent pelt. Once on my head, however, even placed roughly in position, before it's cut or stuck on properly, it is no longer a dead marmoset but my hair. The moment takes my breath away - the hairline is realistically high as it would be in a man my age and he has deftly woven in grey to pick up my own fading colour. In the mirror I'm facing the person I would have been with a different set of genes - it entirely alters my character.

We settle on a posh central parting with a long fringe - basically a toff hairdo called "curtains". Having a big nose and virtually spherical face, the addition of hair transforms me from a talking potato to a flamboyant raffish type who knows how to smoke a cigar and has tried opium. I am Hugh Grant's uglier brother.

I need to test my powers, I need the world to meet Hair Phil. Although happily married, I want women to feel the magnetism of my head. I need to impose myself on London outside the confines of Wake's salon - I need a challenge for the hairpiece. It comes to me. I should pop next door and buy coffee.

To my surprise, no one looks at me twice or says: "Here's your cappuccino, fake hair man."

I even chat to a young woman while I'm there. She does not suggest we start a new life in Paris and to hell with this dirty city, but I feel she might have, given more time. I sit outside on the street wearing second-hand hair and it feels fantastic. You know that tickly feeling you get when your fringe flops into your eye and you have to flick it away? Well, I do!

Obviously my mind turns to my dad. Now, finally, I understand how he became so attached to his hairpiece. I call him and tell him excitedly about how realistic my hair system is and how astonishingly natural it looks. I feel it's a special moment between us - a new intimacy and understanding has emerged, and we are both wiser. I wait to hear how he responds to my epic emotional journey into baldness and the lessons I've learned. "So," he asks, "can you get me one of those wigs?"

• Phil Hilton is editorial director of ShortList magazine

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Study: Male Pattern Baldness Drug May Lower Alcohol Tolerance

Study: Male Pattern Baldness Drug May Lower Alcohol Tolerance

June 16, 2013 10:30 PM
Source: washington.cbslocal.com

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – A new study shows that a drug used to treat male pattern baldness could diminish one’s tolerance for alcohol in those who take it.

Researchers at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. discovered during their study that those taking Propecia for their male pattern hair loss also experienced a lower tolerance for consuming alcoholic beverages.

One author of the study, Dr. Michael S. Irwig, said that two-thirds of the 63 men who participated in the study who were also taking the drug, known also as finasteride, acknowledged the symptom.

“Although not formally assessed, some of the men volunteered that they had more problems tolerating alcohol following finasteride treatment, including increased anxiety, tiredness, and dizziness,” he was quoted as saying in an e-mail obtained by Med Page Today. “They said they got intoxicated more quickly, with fewer drinks, and experienced less euphoria.”

Of those who experienced a decrease in the ability to handle alcohol, an average drop of three drinks per week was reportedly observed.

Researchers involved in the study acknowledged that their findings were not subject to a comparison group, and that their participants were “men with persistent sexual side effects associated with finasteride.”

According to LiveScience, the study was published earlier this month in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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Genetic link to baldness discovered

Genetic link to baldness discovered

A new genetic link to baldness has been discovered that may explain why many men inherit hair loss from their fathers.

1:54PM BST 12 Oct 2008
Source: telegraph.co.uk

Two altered regions of DNA on one of the chromosomes that house the genes contribute to a more than sevenfold increased risk of male pattern baldness.

The nature of the variants is still a mystery but one of them may influence male hormone activity through a gene.

Previously the only genetic association with male baldness known was a variant on the female X chromosome.

This risk factor is passed down the mother's side of the family.

It may account for bald men taking after their maternal grandfathers, but baldness is also often passed from father to son.

The new discovery could help researchers looking for ways to treat inherited male hair loss.

One of the scientists, Dr Tim Spector, of King's College London, said: "Early prediction before hair loss starts may lead to some interesting therapies that are more effective than treating late stage hair loss."

Colleague Dr Brent Richards, from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said: "We've only identified a causes. Treating male pattern baldness will require more research. But, of course, the first step in finding a way to treat most conditions is to first identify the cause."

Two separate international teams led by Dr Spector and Dr Axel Hillmer, from the University of Bonn in Germany, reported similar findings in the journal Nature Genetics.

Dr Spector's group, which included Dr Richards and colleagues from Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline, carried out a genetic study of 1,125 Caucasian men.

Inherited baldness among the men was found to be closely associated with genetic variations at two locations on chromosome 20.

The chromosome, one of the bundles of DNA in every cell that contain the genes, can be inherited from either the mother or father.

Dr Richards said: "It's long been recognised that there must be several genes causing male pattern baldness. Until now, no-one could identify those other genes. If you have both the risk variants we discovered on chromosome 20 and the unrelated known variant on the X chromosome, your risk of becoming bald increases sevenfold."

The German-led scientists focused on around 300 men with serious hair loss, scouring 500,000 variable sites in their genetic codes. They found a clear association between baldness and the same two variants on chromosome 20.

One of the variant regions harbours a gene for a biologically active receptor protein that is sensitive to male hormones.

Dr Felix Brockschmidt, from the University of Bonn, said: "We are now trying to discover the role played by this genomic region in hair growth. Only then will we know whether we are on the right track for new forms of therapy for male hair loss."

Male pattern baldness, the most common form, causes hair to be lost in a well-defined pattern beginning above both temples. It results in a distinctive M-shaped hairline.

Estimates suggest that more than 80% of cases of male pattern baldness are hereditary.

An estimated 14% of men are thought to carry the two chromosome 20 variants.

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Researchers Hope a Treatment that Creates New Hair Follicles Cures Male Baldness

Researchers Hope a Treatment that Creates New Hair Follicles Cures Male Baldness

By: Rachel Nuwer, September 27, 2013 1:00 pm
Source: blogs.smithsonianmag.com



Photo: Welshsk

In the movie Duplicity, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play corporate spies battling to gain access to a chemical formula solving baldness, which will make them millions. Things don’t work out for them in the film—the formula turns out to be bogus. That’s normally where stories about treatments for baldness end up. But a real life company called Follica thinks it has a new twist.

The company, The Scientist explains, was founded by a group of scientists who have been working on this problem for several years. The breakthrough they’re betting on is based upon a 2007 finding published in Nature showing that new hair follicles formed when mice regrew wounded tissue. A wound “induces an embryonic phenotype in skin,” they explain in the paper, and that process allows a window for creating new hair follicles. ”These findings suggest treatments for wounds, hair loss and other degenerative skin disorders,” the researchers wrote.

The fixing hair loss part of that, of course, would be the jackpot. The Scientist reports on what we know about the company’s progress:

Although Follica has released few details on their proprietary procedure, the general idea is clear: their patented minimally invasive “skin perturbation” device removes the top layers of skin, causing the underlying skin cells to revert to a stem-like state, after which a molecule is applied topically to direct the formation of new hair follicles. 

Indeed, Follica has already done preclinical and clinical trials, says [co-founder Bernat] Olle, “all of which confirm that we can consistently create new hair follicles in mice and in humans. As far as I know, no other approach has been able to achieve that.”

This summer, co-founder George Cotsarelis, whose lab made that original 2007 breakthrough, published another Nature Medicine paper pinpointing a specific protein called  fibroblast growth factor 9 that increased new hair follicle formation by a factor of two or three when overstimulated in mice, the Scientist writes. The next steps will be to test this finding in human skin grafts and, if all goes well, perform clinical trials.

Scientists have been trying to solve the mystery of the missing hair follicle for decades, however, and many other labs are pursuing this endeavor, as attested by the more than 200 clinical trials currently listed by the National Institutes of Heath. Whichever lab—if any—eventually cracks that puzzle, will surely reap the millions Duplicity imagined—along the thanks of millions of self-conscious men around the world.

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Stratus Media Group and Histogen Execute Letter of Intent for Biotechnology Merger

Stratus Media Group and Histogen Execute Letter of Intent for Biotechnology Merger

Source: histogen.com

LOS ANGELES, October 07, 2013 - Stratus Media Group, Inc. (OTCQB:SMDI) announced today that it was planning to expand its entrance into the biotechnology industry with the execution of a letter of intent between the Company and Histogen, Inc., a regenerative medicine company developing innovative therapies for conditions including hair loss and cancer.

The non-binding letter of intent outlines the primary terms of a merger of San Diego-based Histogen into Stratus, to be renamed Restorgenex Corporation. The letter of intent has been approved by the board of directors of both companies, and the parties are engaged in completing a formal merger agreement.

Histogen's solutions are based upon the products of cells grown under proprietary conditions that mimic the embryonic environment, including low oxygen and suspension. The technology focuses on stimulating a patient's own stem cells by delivering a proprietary complex of proteins that have been shown to support stem cell growth and differentiation. Histogen's lead product, Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC) has shown success in two Company-sponsored clinical trials as an injectable treatment for alopecia. In addition, the human multipotent cell conditioned media produced through Histogen's process can be found in skincare products including ReGenica, which is distributed by Suneva Medical in partnership with Obagi Medical Products.

"Histogen's technology platform opens a spectrum of potential product opportunities in both aesthetics and therapeutics, an ideal fit with our vision for Restorgenex," said Sol J. Barer, Ph.D., who will assume the position of Chairman of the Board of Restorgenex effective November 1, 2013. "The expertise of the Histogen team in developing regenerative products from concept to market, along with the success Histogen has already found in skincare partnering, will add significant value to our Company."

Following successful completion of this proposed merger, the company's goal is to build Restorgenex into a world-class cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical company in the large and expanding fields of dermatology and hair restoration. The parties intend to move toward a formal merger agreement in which Histogen would become a wholly-owned subsidiary, Histogen founder Gail K. Naughton, Ph.D. would assume the position of Chief Executive Officer of Restorgenex, and the corporate headquarters of Restorgenex would be located in San Diego. The merger will require, among other things, the satisfaction of customary closing conditions including the approval of Histogen's shareholders.

"I am very excited about the potential of a merger between Histogen and Restorgenex, and look forward to moving into the next stage," said Dr. Naughton. "It is an honor to be working with biotechnology visionaries Dr. Sol Barer and Isaac Blech, and to have them recognize the promise of Histogen's products is a true testament to the unique and exciting nature of our technology."

Dr. Naughton has spent more than 25 years extensively researching the tissue engineering process, holds more than 95 U.S. and foreign patents, and has been honored for her pioneering work in the field by prestigious organizations including receiving the Intellectual Property Owners Association Inventor of the Year Award.

Prior to founding Histogen in 2007, Dr. Naughton oversaw the design and development of the world's first up-scaled manufacturing facility for tissue engineered products, was pivotal in raising over $350M from the public market and corporate partnerships, and brought four human cell-based products from concept through FDA approval and market launch as President of Advanced Tissue Sciences.

"I believe the potential acquisition of Histogen, and the expertise and vision Dr. Naughton will bring as Chief Executive Officer will be a tremendous asset in ushering the Company into the biotechnology industry," said Jerold Rubinstein, current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Stratus.

www.histogen.com
www.stratusmediagroup.com

Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release relating to plans, strategies, projections of results, and other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934. Forward-looking information is inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors. Although the company's management believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, performance or achievements. The company has no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Contacts
Histogen, Inc.
Eileen Brandt, (858) 200-9520
ebrandt@histogeninc.com

Stratus Media Group, Inc.
Tim Boris, 310-526-8700
timb@stratusmediagroup.com

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