|
Useful Links
Is Molecular Signaling the Holy Grail for Reversing Hair Loss?If you study biology very deeply you find that there are two phases to which hair follicles are subject. The anagen phase and the telogen phase. The anagen phase is the active phase where signals are sent to the upper or outer lay of the skin to cause it to become active and generate an appendage which then grows to become a hair follicle. The telogen phase is the opposite of that and is where the hair follicle receives a message causing it to shut down and no longer produce the hair. As you may have heard and understood these hair growing cells are also known as stem cells prior to having a solid identity. Stem cells evolve into whatever their job and position in the body requires them to be. The question as far as hair loss and the treatment of hair loss then becomes what signals the stem cell to become a follicle and what signals it to grow a hair or to stop growing a hair? Good question and the answer has not yet been fully answered. Dr. Richard Lee has spent his career looking at various treatments to cause the growth of hair and has spent considerable time and research hours attempting to answer this question. So, far it has been confirmed that certain amino acids or mesodermal proteins called Wnt can and do in fact have the ability to turn on the genes in the nucleus of the cell to produce the nodule that becomes the hair follicle. After the follicle is formed the Wnt sends the signal to the matrix cells and cause them to become a hair producing follicle. Subjecting the mice to this process researchers were able to cause the mice to grow and incredibly thick coat of fur. The problem with that is that overstimulating the cells in this fashion created a backlash of sorts. It caused benign lumps on the epidermal layer similar to human scalp tumors called pilotricoloma. While these bumps may have some benefits to those that read other's bumps on their heads this is not a desirable result from trying to grow hair. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be bald than have something called pilotricoloma. Still the challenge for researchers is to find a way to apply this Wnt so that the application mimics mother nature in terms of amount and timing. If successful they will have dealt a blow to male pattern baldness. Where One Treatment Fall Short Another is Tried In the treatment above using Wnt the researchers basically inhibited the chemical beta-catenin in the epidermal cells. So, other researchers examined a different path. Instead they focused on stimulating the hair keratin genes. A protein called lymphocyte enhancer factor or LEF1 was used to stimulate the hair follicle after finding that this protein is present in follicle formation during the embryonic stage. The bottom line here was they genetically manipulated mice to be born with an excess of LEF1 in their systems. The result was a truly hairy specie of mice. Other researchers found that mice with no LEF1 in the system were basically devoid of hair. Aha, I need more LEF1 you might say. Well, read on. As with the first treatment idea the above has not proved to be completely satisfactory either. Therefore, enter the "sonic hedgehog". I suppose they named this have the spiny-haired animal the hedgehog. The sonic hedgehog has been found to be an extremely important factor for growing hair. Researchers have found that this solution plays an important factor in maturing the embryonic follicle into maturity. The treatment has had success in adding follicles between other dormant follicles as well as causing some dormant follicles to come out of their telogen (inactive) phase and begin to produce hair again. But, as we know it's not nice to mess with mother nature and she reacts by growing very unwelcome cells called basal carcinomas. Again I'd rather be bald. All of these directions in research have promise. The problem is truly uncovering what it takes to mimic mother nature so that the correct and safe result is attained. Perhaps the answer is in another direction as described in "The Biology of Belief" by Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. who maintains that cells are influenced by their environment and our thought processes more than externals. His research more than indicates this. Give it some thought.
Highly Recommended
Informative Articles
Recommended ResourcesDO YOU HAVE A HAIR LOSS SITE? Want to trade links? Learn more - click here See our list of recommended resources - click here
|
Newsletter
Useful Links
Products & Services
Categories
Opportunities
|
||||
|
|
|||||