L-Carnatine shown to promote hair growth!

[HairLossFight.com]

You can pick up L-Carnatine supplements from health food stores. I think I'm going to start using it as part of my regimen based on the following:

L-Carnitine-L-tartrate promotes human hair growth in vitro

Authors: Foitzik, Kerstin; Hoting, Edo1; Frster, Thomas2; Pertile, Paolo3; Paus, Ralf4

Source: Experimental Dermatology, Volume 16, Number 11, November 2007 , pp. 936-945(10)

Abstract:

The trimethylated amino acidl-carnitine plays a key role in the intramitochondrial transport of fatty acids for -oxidation and thus serves important functions in energy metabolism. Here, we have tested the hypothesis thatl-carnitine, a frequently employed dietary supplement, may also stimulate hair growth by increasing energy supply to the massively proliferating and energy-consuming anagen hair matrix. Hair follicles (HFs) in the anagen VI stage of the hair cycle were cultured in the presence of 0.5-50mofl-carnitine-l-tartrate (CT) for 9days. At day 9, HFs treated with 5mor 0.5mof CT showed a moderate, but significant stimulation of hair shaft elongation compared with vehicle-treated controls (P<0.05). Also, CT prolonged the duration of anagen VI, down regulated apoptosis (as measured by TUNEL assay) and up regulated proliferation (as measured by Ki67 immunohistology) of hair matrix keratinocytes (P<0.5). By immunohistology, intrafollicular immunoreactivity for TGF2, a key catagen-promoting growth factor, in the dermal papilla and TGF- II receptor protein in the outer root sheath and dermal papilla was down regulated. As shown by caspase activity assay, caspase 3 and 7, which are known to initiate apoptosis, are down regulated at day 2 and day 4 after treatment of HFs with CT compared with vehicle-treated control indicating that CT has an immediate protective effect on HFs to undergo programmed cell death. Our findings suggest thatl-carnitine stimulates human scalp hair growth by up regulation of proliferation and down regulation of apoptosis in follicular keratinocytes in vitro. They further encourage one to explore topical and nutraceutical administration ofl-carnitine as a well-tolerated, relatively safe adjuvant treatment in the management of androgenetic alopecia and other forms of hair loss.

[HairLossFight.com]

New topical potential here also big-time...

[James]

hmmm, interesting.. I used to include this in my internal regimen, maybe I will put it back in.