Bald truth: plucking hair out can stimulate growth, study finds

Bald truth: plucking hair out can stimulate growth, study finds

Hannah Devlin, science correspndent

@hannahdev Thursday 9 April 2015 17.02 BST Last modified on Thursday 9 April 2015 17.03 BSTSource: theguardian.com  

Although it seems counterintuitive, tests indicate that plucked follicles ‘communicate’, causing an immune response that leads to regrowth

Could this discovery be used to tackle baldness and alopecia? 
Tests are at an early stage, but could provide a solution in the future. Photograph: Asger Carlsen/Getty Images

Baldness is often dreaded by men and there are few, if any, satisfactory options for reversing it. Now scientists have discovered a potential solution, after showing that plucking hair out could actually stimulate growth.

The counterintuitive discovery, in mice, demonstrates a previously unknown method for triggering hair regeneration. Although the work is at an early stage, the authors believe the same process could be helpful for tackling hair loss in men or people with alopecia.

Philip Murray, of Dundee University and a co-author, said the findings now need to be tested in people. “It would be a bit of a leap of faith to expect this to work in bald men without doing more experiments,” he said.

The study found that when hairs were plucked in a specific configuration, follicles in the skin were prompted to send out a “distress” signal that led to even more hairs growing back. Plucking our 200 hairs triggered the growth of up to 1,200 replacement hairs in the mice, the study found.

Tests showed that the plucked follicles signal distress by releasing inflammatory proteins, which cause immune cells to rush to the site. In turn, these send out signals to all neighbouring follicles indicating that it is time to grow more hair.

“We’ve made a discovery about how hair communicates when it’s distressed,” said Murray.

The study, published in the journal Cell, showed that the pattern in which the hair was plucked played an important role in the strength of the “distress” signalling process. The researchers tested this by plucking 200 hair follicles, one by one, in different configurations on the back of a mouse. When plucking the hairs in a low-density pattern from an area more than six millimetres across, no hairs regenerated. However, higher-density plucking from circular areas with diameters between three and five millimetres triggered the regeneration of between 450 and 1,300 hairs – and the regeneration sometimes spilled out beyond the plucked area.

The authors believe that hair follicles do not simply respond individually to being plucked, but also communicate between themselves - something called “quorum sensing” - and effectively make a group decision about the level of immune response that is necessary. In the case of widely spaced plucking, the follicles are too far apart to be able to signal collectively. However, when the damage is tightly packed a more extreme response is mounted, leading to much stronger hair regrowth.

A potential drawback in balding men might be that their hairs are already too sparsely spaced for the approach to be helpful.

“It is a good example of how basic research can lead to a work with potential translational value,” said Cheng-Ming Chuong, professor of pathology at the University of Southern California and lead author.

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'Hedgehog' may cure baldness

'Hedgehog' may cure baldness

by PAT HAGAN, Daily Mail
Source: dailymail.co.uk



Sonic the Hedgehog

A gene that 'switches on' hair growth when it's injected into the skin could one day offer hope to thousands of bald men. Scientists have discovered that the gene - which goes by the unlikely name of Sonic Hedgehog - can stir dormant hair follicles back to life.

The first tests on humans are being planned after laboratory studies on mice showed they grew thick tufts of new hair within two weeks of the treatment. If this success is repeated in human trials, a cure for baldness could be developed within the next few years.

The breakthrough treatment is potentially far more effective than the Propecia regrowth pills about to be launched in Britain.

Doctors who discovered the genetic therapy believe it will work best on sick patients who, for example, may have lost their hair through chemotherapy. But they are also confident it could trigger new hair growth in men who have 'pattern baldness' - where their hair has receded for no obvious reason.

Up to half of men over 40 and a significant number of women - may be affected by hair loss, and although new drugs are coming on the market, they have had mixed results and are not suitable for everybody.

The genetic breakthrough by scientists at the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Cornell University, New York, came after they decided to apply technology already being used to repair diseased hearts to the problem of hair loss. This involves identifying genes known to play an important part in the development of the body and deploying them to kick-start growth in organs that are giving up.

In the case of hair, scientists pinpointed the Sonic Hedgehog gene as the ideal candidate for the job. So-called because the researcher who first identified it thought its shape resembled the computer-game character, the gene plays a key role in the embryonic development of the brain, heart, lungs, skeleton, skin and hair.

It was injected into the mice to see if it could speed up the natural process of producing hair. To measure if hair around the site of the injection was growing, the black-haired mice were dyed blonde. After seven days, hair follicles around the patch being treated had sprung back into action and were showing signs of thickening. After just 14 days, shafts of black hair 1/2 cm long had emerged on the backs of the mice.

Everybody has this gene. And, as it seems to be involved in hair growth, we thought that if we turned up expression of the gene for a few days we could wake up sleeping hair follicles and make them grow,' says Dr Ronald Crystal, who led the research team.

'There are 100,000 hair follicles in your head when you are born and you don't get any more - that's it. 'But if you look at someone who has lost their hair through chemotherapy, they still have those follicles. It's the same for a man who is bald. He has hair follicles too, but they are sleeping.

'We don't have the slightest idea if this would work in bald men - humans are not just big mice. But we are hopeful.' Dr Crystal and his team are considering trying out the therapy on humans, and several leading drug companies have already expressed an interest in the technique.

But one of the biggest problems they face is that over-expression of the Sonic Hedgehog gene is directly linked to a type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma. This is the most common form of skin cancer in the UK with at least 30,000 new cases every year. During laboratory tests, none of the mice developed the condition. 'The mice are six months old now and so far as we can tell they look normal,' says Dr Crystal. 'There are no adverse effects and what we are essentially doing is accelerating the normal process.

There are 100,000 genes so you have to choose your gene carefully but it's not rocket science. 'It's the same technique we are using to grow new blood vessels in people with severe cardiovascular disease, though we use different genes.'

John Mason, president of the UK Institute of Trichologists experts in hair loss - said it was too early to judge whether the treatment could be the answer to baldness. 'I am rather negative about this. I doubt if there is anything in it, and if there is, then it's a long way away,' he said.

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