Skin may have the capacity to regenerate lost hair follicles from within, according to a new discovery that could yield better treatments for baldness or abnormal hair growth. Researchers in the United States have found that, when skin is wounded, epidermal cells can respond by assuming the properties of stem cells that generate hair follicles and growing new hair.
K15 gene and protein expression in mouse skin
Current baldness treatments include minoxidil, which expands blood vessels in the scalp; anti-androgens, which attempt to minimize the ravages of testosterone and its related hormones; and hair-follicle transplants.
George Cotsarelis and his team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia are behind this new research. If the same is true of human skin, the research raises the possibility that older men with established baldness could be successfully restored to their former hirsute glory.
We are currently targeting several different genes to the bulge cells of transgenic mice using the K15 promoter to address the role of different oncogenes in tumorigenesis and alopecia. Using Real Time PCR, microarray analysis, laser capture microdissection, and a host of other conventional molecular techniques, we are studying the role of novel and known genes in hair follicle cycling and cutaneous biology.
Current baldness treatments include minoxidil, which expands blood vessels in the scalp; anti-androgens, which attempt to minimize the ravages of testosterone and its related hormones; and hair-follicle transplants.