I have not been around for a while and it has done me a world of good logging off this joint but I am back tonight for the sake of this message.
Tonight on the propaganda box (TV) the evening news ran a story on,
"New hope for combating baldness"
A competing news channel had a transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1925444.htm
Don't jump up and down... I'm not, but its good to see others with their hands in the pot.
AM - Thursday, 17 May , 2007 08:26:00
Reporter: Barbara Miller
TONY EASTLEY: The bald look may have been made fashionable by a raft of sporting and entertainment stars, but for many men a receding hairline is still a source of anxiety.
But hope of a cure for baldness has arrived in the form of a US study, which shows for the first time that hair can be regrown.
Barbara Miller reports.
BARBARA MILLER: Until now the options for combating baldness have been limited to shaving off all your remaining hair, opting for expensive implants, or relying on a wig or toupee.
It was thought that once hair follicles were lost, they were gone forever.
But a team at the University of Pennsylvania says it's shown that in mice at least, new hair follicles will grow under certain conditions.
George Cotsarelis, an Associate Professor in Dermatology, is the lead author of the study, which has been published in Nature.
GEORGE COTSARELIS: We were doing studies around the role of hair follicle stem cells in wound healing, and we noticed that after wounding the mice, they developed hair in the middle of the wound.
So we thought something had gone wrong, but we went back and looked very carefully and realised that these follicles were forming from scratch, basically.
They weren't coming in from the periphery of the wound; they were actually developing as if they were in an embryo.
So we went back and looked at the literature, and found some articles from the 1950s in mice, rabbits and humans, where investigators had reported seeing what they thought was hair follicle new genesis, at that time too.
BARBARA MILLER: It does seem incredible that no one has noticed this, why do you think it hasn't been noticed?
GEORGE COTSARELIS: I think there are a couple of reasons. One is because when scientist's study wound healing, they're really usually interested in how fast the wound closes.
So once the wound is healed, they've kind of stopped paying attention. And this occurs subsequent to that, so you have to keep watching.
And even if they did look at the wounds later on, and they saw hair follicles, or hair in them, they probably thought it just migrated in from the outside.
BARBARA MILLER: George Cotsarelis says if the technique is ever to become a treatment for baldness the new hair follicles will have to be stimulated once they appear.
GEORGE COTSARELIS: We also found that there was a protein called Wnt that was very important for regenerating the hair follicles. If we put extra Wnt into the system, the number of hair follicles doubled, that formed.
If you're thinking about it therapeutically, as a treatment for hair loss, eventually what will have to happen is, after the disruption of the skin, which doesn't necessarily have to be drastic, it may be that we can find a laser or some other means of causing this effect in the skin.
But the key is going to be coming in after that with a protein that's going to stimulate hair follicle reformation.
BARBARA MILLER: The researchers hope to start clinical trials in a couple of years.
TONY EASTLEY: Barbara Miller reporting.
Tonight on the propaganda box (TV) the evening news ran a story on,
"New hope for combating baldness"
A competing news channel had a transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1925444.htm
Don't jump up and down... I'm not, but its good to see others with their hands in the pot.
AM - Thursday, 17 May , 2007 08:26:00
Reporter: Barbara Miller
TONY EASTLEY: The bald look may have been made fashionable by a raft of sporting and entertainment stars, but for many men a receding hairline is still a source of anxiety.
But hope of a cure for baldness has arrived in the form of a US study, which shows for the first time that hair can be regrown.
Barbara Miller reports.
BARBARA MILLER: Until now the options for combating baldness have been limited to shaving off all your remaining hair, opting for expensive implants, or relying on a wig or toupee.
It was thought that once hair follicles were lost, they were gone forever.
But a team at the University of Pennsylvania says it's shown that in mice at least, new hair follicles will grow under certain conditions.
George Cotsarelis, an Associate Professor in Dermatology, is the lead author of the study, which has been published in Nature.
GEORGE COTSARELIS: We were doing studies around the role of hair follicle stem cells in wound healing, and we noticed that after wounding the mice, they developed hair in the middle of the wound.
So we thought something had gone wrong, but we went back and looked very carefully and realised that these follicles were forming from scratch, basically.
They weren't coming in from the periphery of the wound; they were actually developing as if they were in an embryo.
So we went back and looked at the literature, and found some articles from the 1950s in mice, rabbits and humans, where investigators had reported seeing what they thought was hair follicle new genesis, at that time too.
BARBARA MILLER: It does seem incredible that no one has noticed this, why do you think it hasn't been noticed?
GEORGE COTSARELIS: I think there are a couple of reasons. One is because when scientist's study wound healing, they're really usually interested in how fast the wound closes.
So once the wound is healed, they've kind of stopped paying attention. And this occurs subsequent to that, so you have to keep watching.
And even if they did look at the wounds later on, and they saw hair follicles, or hair in them, they probably thought it just migrated in from the outside.
BARBARA MILLER: George Cotsarelis says if the technique is ever to become a treatment for baldness the new hair follicles will have to be stimulated once they appear.
GEORGE COTSARELIS: We also found that there was a protein called Wnt that was very important for regenerating the hair follicles. If we put extra Wnt into the system, the number of hair follicles doubled, that formed.
If you're thinking about it therapeutically, as a treatment for hair loss, eventually what will have to happen is, after the disruption of the skin, which doesn't necessarily have to be drastic, it may be that we can find a laser or some other means of causing this effect in the skin.
But the key is going to be coming in after that with a protein that's going to stimulate hair follicle reformation.
BARBARA MILLER: The researchers hope to start clinical trials in a couple of years.
TONY EASTLEY: Barbara Miller reporting.
