Q&A for United Technologies- Dermatopoietin hair protection system

[Jacob]

A big welcome and a big thanks to the rep at United Technologies who has agreed to spend some time here answering any questions we may have. This should make things a bit easier for everyone..so again, thank you

Please try to keep this thread on topic- Questions and/or comments for her. The other thread can be used for discussions amongst (y)ourselves. Thank you

[MG63]

Thanks Jacob.

Hi -- for the hair protection system what is the total commitment - 14 days?

Who are the best candidates for this product? For example, I have a lot of small hairs in the front at my hair line (e.g. 1/4" long) will it help these hairs to grow?

MG63

[cloud9]

What makes this product deferent than A&g ( That haven't worked for most ) or Dermaheal ?

[Starfish]

Dermatopoietin is the 159 amino acid long polypeptide interleukin-1 alpha http://www.unitech.ch/cosm.html

Interleukin-1 is one of the last things I would want to apply to my scalp.
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Dermatology. 1995;191(4):273-5.

Does interleukin-1 induce hair loss?
Hoffmann R, Happle R.

Cytokines play an important role in both physiology and pathophysiology of human skin, and the possibility that they coordinate the cyclical hair growth cannot be excluded. Several clinical and experimental data point towards interleukin-1 which might be a crucial inducer of hair loss in various hair disease. An aberrant expression of interleukin-1 beta was detected in affected areas of the scalp in alopecia areata. On the other hand, interleukin-1 has been shown to be a potent inhibitor of human hair growth in vitro. Mice showing an overexpression of the interleukin-1 alpha gene develop patchy hair loss. Taking all of the presently available data together, we hypothesize that interleukin-1 is a crucial mediator inducing cessation of hair growth.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8573920
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Eur J Dermatol. 1998 Oct-Nov;8(7):475-7.

Elements of the interleukin-1 signaling system show hair cycle-dependent gene expression in murine skin.
Hoffmann R, Happle R, Paus R.

Stringently controlled changes in the local, cytokine-mediated signaling milieu of hair follicles (HF) have been implicated as major elements of hair cycle control and several lines of clinical and experimental evidence point towards interleukin-1 (IL-1) as an important inducer of hair loss. To address the question as to whether the steady state mRNA levels of the gene expression of the IL-1 family parallel distinct phases of the murine hair cycle, we have exploited the high degree of synchrony during depilation-induced HF cycling in mice, and have determined the mRNA levels of IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-1-receptor antagonist, IL-1 receptor (R)-I and IL-1-R-II by semiquantitative RT-PCR. Our results indicate that the induced murine hair cycle is associated with profound fluctuations in the steady state mRNA levels of members of the IL-1 signaling system. Most interestingly, IL-1alpha and IL-1beta transcript levels increased dramatically with the onset of spontaneous catagen (around day 18) and peaked during telogen (day 25). These fluctuations in the IL-1alpha and IL-1beta transcript levels were paralleled by substantial expression changes of the corresponding signal transducing type I IL-1 receptor. Therefore, our findings are consistent with the concept that IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-1-RI and IL-1-RII are involved in the control of catagen development.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9854157
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Journal of Investigative Dermatology (1997) 108, 40–42; doi:10.1111/1523-1747.ep12285625

Interleukin-1-Induced Inhibition of Hair Growth In Vitro Is Mediated by Cyclic AMP
Rolf Hoffmann, Wolfgang Eicheler, Elke Wenzel and Rudolf Happle

Abstract
Interleukin (IL)-1 has been shown to be a potent inhibitor of hair growth in vitro. We hypothesized that this cytokine might be a decisive factor causing hair loss during the lymphocytic attack in alopecia areata. Neither the intracellular pathways involved in hair growth inhibition mediated by IL-1 nor the signal transduction processes within hair follicles in general are known. We therefore investigated the intracellular signals involved in human hair growth in vitro. Hair follicles were isolated from scalp biopsies by microdissection and hair growth was measured daily by image analysis. We assessed intracellular signal transducing elements using specific inhibitors or activators either alone or in combination with IL-1. The calcium ionophore A 23187 induced a rapid and complete arrest of hair growth and phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), genistein, or IL-1 decreased hair growth by approximately 60%- 80%. IL-1- elicited hair growth arrest was not antagonized by calphostin C, a specific inhibitor of protein kinase C. In contrast, coincubation of IL-1 with pertussis toxin or H 1004 neutralized the effect of IL-1 and dibutyryl-cAMP and cholera toxin, an activator of adenylate cyclase, inhibited hair growth. These data suggest that cAMP acts as a second messenger for IL-1-induced inhibition of hair growth. Moreover, our data indicate that in vitro hair growth is dependent on intracellular Ca22+ levels and activation of tyrosine kinase as well as protein kinase C. We were unable to detect a signal transducing element responsible for enhanced hair growth in vitro.
http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v108/ ... 0301a.html
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Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.


Pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1α is downregulated during anagen phase of hair cycle in vivo

Kazuto Hamadaa, Sachiyo Hirotsua, Hideyo Uchiwaa, Shunsuke Yamazakib, Keiko Suzukib
Abstract not available
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High-dose proinflammatory cytokines induce apoptosis of hair bulb keratinocytes in vivo

R. Rückert , G. Lindner,* S. Bulfone-Paus and R. Paus†

ABSTRACT
Background Hair loss following skin inflammation may in part be mediated by keratinocyte (KC) apoptosis. While the effects of different cytokines or other apoptosis stimulating agents such as interferon (IFN)-γ or tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α on KC apoptosis in vitro have been addressed in several studies, little is known about the effects of proinflammatory cytokines on KC apoptosis in vivo.

Objectives To study the effects of intradermally injected TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and IFN-γ on KC apoptosis in the back skin of C57BL/6 mice.

Methods Apoptosis in epidermal and hair bulb KCs was analysed by immunohistology using TUNEL staining.

Results Injection of TNF-α induced a significantly higher number of apoptotic cells within the epidermis than vehicle; all three proinflammatory cytokines together further increased their number. Intrafollicular hair bulb KCs were much more susceptible to apoptosis induction by TNF-α or IL-1β; their injection significantly upregulated apoptosis after 6 h, which was further increased after 24 h. The combination of all cytokines together accelerated intrafollicular apoptosis after 6 h by doubling the number of apoptotic cells per hair bulb, compared with the effects of TNF-α or IL-1β alone.

Conclusions These data suggest that programmed cell death of proliferating KCs in vivo can be induced by proinflammatory cytokines.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/jou ... 4/abstract
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INTERLEUKIN-1 GENE CLUSTER POLYMORPHISMS IN ALOPECIA AREATA: STRONG ASSOCIATION OF IL1RN & IL1L1 GENOTYPES WITH SEVERE DISEASE & EARLY AGE AT ONSET.

R Tazi Ahnini, AJG McDonagh, A Cox, FS di Giovine, AG Messenger, P Dimitropoulou, GW Duff & MJ Cork. University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2JF, UK

Alopecia areata is an inflammatory hair loss disease with a major genetic component. The presence of focal inflammatory lesions with perifollicular T-cell infiltrates reflects the importance of local cytokine production in the pathogenesis. In addition to its fundamental pro-inflammatory role, the interleukin-1 (IL-1) system has been shown to have major effects on hair growth regulation in vitro, with the inhibitory actions of IL-1a and IL-1b being opposed by the receptor antagonist, IL-1ra.

To test whether the genes encoding these molecules are involved in alopecia areata susceptibility, we examined 5 biallelic polymorphisms within the 430 kbp of the IL-1 gene cluster on chromosome 2q14 (IL1RN+2018, IL1B+3954, IL1B-511, IL1A+4845 & IL1L1+4734) in a case-control association study on 165 patients. We found no significant association with IL1A+4845, IL1B-511 or IL1B+3954 variants. However, homozygosity for the rare allele of IL1RN was significantly associated with alopecia areata (OR=1.89, 95% ci (1.09, 3.28); p=0.02) confirming our previous observations of significant association between the IL1RNVNTR and disease. The results also revealed a novel association with IL1L1+4734. Genotypes combining 3 copies of the rare alleles at the IL1RN & IL1L1 loci conferred a markedly higher risk of disease (OR=3.37, 95% ci (1.60, 7.06); p=0.001), suggesting a synergetic effect between these genes. This effect was stronger in patients with severe disease (alopecia totalis/ universalis) (OR 4.62, 95% ci (1.87, 11.40), p=0.0022). The highest risk was found in patients with early age at onset (<20 years) (OR=6.38, 95% ci (2.64, 15.42), p=0.0002).

Our results suggest that these polymorphisms within IL1L1 & IL1RN themselves or a gene in linkage disequilibrium with IL1L1 & IL1RN predispose to the severe form of alopecia areata.
http://www.ehrs.org/conferenceabstract ... ahnini.htm

b.

[hopeful19]

How often do you recommend a cycle be repeated?

[Jacob]

Well..I guess the company boss prefers they not participate in the forum. Questions can still be forwarded to them at info@unitech.ch and you can even post responses here..so it's basically the same thing

I'll forward the above questions/comments to them.

[hopeful19]

Thanks Jacob

[Jacob]

I'd like to point out that Starfish, above..is actually "bug"...who was banned here some time ago and decided to show up with a new name just to post something supposedly negative about another company's product. I say this because he seems to be a big fan of A&G which we still have no idea what all contains, and he's even using a "beefed up" version which they really don't know anything about. For all we know the same (supposed)slam against this product could very easily be applied to A&G. And who knows what else. In fact bug raised questions about A&G which I never saw answered.

Now having said that...back to United Technologies. Their response(besides what I had posted and sent to them..which can be seen in the other thread):

I am sending you the presentation of Dermatopoietin and there you can find some more information about its mechanism of action also against hairfall. The information about the hair study is located mainly starting from page 29 till page 32. There you can find that some cells within a hair follicle are similar to those within the skin, namely that epithelial matrix within a follicle plays basically the same role as the upper layer of the epidermis – it produces dermatopoietin which subsequently stimulates dermal papilla cells (equivalents of skin fibrablasts) for them to start producing growth factors.



Please note the here we are also not talking about Interluekin-1 alpha by itself, but about the combination of this polypeptide with Hexapeptide-18. Hexapeptide -18 is a very important component because it’s not only increases blood microcirculation but also prevents skin from exfoliation, which would be caused if dermatopoietin if it were applied alone. That is why we have licensed this combination as Dermatopoietin-Plus and that is how we present it now.

I was going to post the link to the pdf file but it seems it's too large for the blog. Will look into some other way of posting it.

[Jacob]

Here's a smaller pdf they sent that you can download that focuses more on Dermatopoietin and hair: http://my.hairlossfight.com/pg/file/jac ... ion-system

Still going to look for a way to get the bigger file up...

[Jacob]

I had asked if the product could be applied on a freshly towel dried scalp or do you need to let things dry first. The answer..towel drying is enough.

They are also planning on improving the 5-14 day product..so it's a bit closer to the 1-4 day product as far as how light it is..ease of application..etc. May happen w/in a month.

[MG63]

given the potential change in the product - does it make sense to wait before purchasing? If so - there goes the 30% discount

[Joanne]

Maybe that's the reason for the discount ... to move the inventory before the next version comes out?

[MG63]

i've just finished up 6 months on dermaheal and was going to make the move to the Dermatopoietin hair protection system. I'm not sure when to make the jump. Like Jacob I'm trying to generate more regrowth and it appears from the latest threads this might work.

[Jacob]

I'm waiting to get a response back on whether or not any "goodies" will be added to the improved product. If not..the only difference will be ease of applying it and how it looks on your head. Although the 1-4 does absorb so much better..it seems....

[MG63]

thanks Jacob, I'll wait to order until I hear from you.

[MG63]

hey Jacob -- have you received any response on the formulation? thx

[Jacob]

Nope..not yet.