Study offers hope of baldness cure

A CURE for baldness may be on the horizon following the discovery that hair follicles can be regenerated in mammalian skin.

Scientists made the breakthrough in mice after identifying a mechanism that allows dormant genes to re-awaken.

A US company, Follica Inc, has now licensed the technology in the hope of developing new treatments for hair loss and acne.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine proved that fresh follicles can form when patches of skin are removed from mice.

Genes that had lain dormant since the mice were embryos sprang back into life, sending stem cells to the site of the injury.

Study leader Dr George Cotsarelis, who co-founded Follica Inc, said: “We’ve found that we can influence wound healing with proteins that allow the skin to heal in a way that has less scarring and includes all the normal structures of skin, such as hair follicles and oil glands, rather than just a scar.”

The research, published in the journal Nature, has implications that go beyond finding a cure for male-pattern baldness. It raises the possibility of treatments for other follicle-related disorders, such as acne, as well as scalp conditions.

Dr Denis Headon of the University of Manchester, also hailed the breakthrough: “We thought that the number of hair follicles we have is set before we were born and can only go downhill from there.

“This work shows that new hair follicles are made in adult skin. They also found a way to artificially soup up this natural process,” he added.

“The implication is that it might be simpler than we thought to make new hair follicles as a treatment for hair loss.”