Good news for hairless mice

[Tricia]

Thick Fur on Hairless Mice After Gene Therapy

By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD
on Monday, September 26, 2005

Sept. 26, 2005 -- If you're hair-impaired, a new finding about mice offers hope for rejuvenating barren hair follicles.

The finding comes from the Johns Hopkins University lab of Catherine C. Thompson, PhD. Thompson and colleagues wondered exactly why mice lacking the Hairless gene are, well, hairless.

Their results point researchers toward a way to regenerate the hair follicles of men and women with alopecia.

A Tiny Organ

Hair follicles aren't normal skin cells. They're really tiny organs. And these tiny organs do one of the most amazing things any organ can do: they regenerate.

Hair cells grow hair, of course. But that's only one phase of their life cycle. Each follicle eventually withers down to a shadow of its former self. Then, somehow, stem cells inside the follicle come to life. The follicle regenerates and grows a new hair.

When something goes wrong with this process, hair thinning or baldness results. Researchers have a model for this: mice lacking the Hairless gene. At first, these mice grow normal-looking hair. But as their hair follicles cycle, the hairs fall out -- and don't grow back.

Thompson's team genetically engineered hairless mice to produce Hairless protein in specific cells within the hair follicle. The result: Mice that grew -- and kept growing -- thick fur.

The researchers showed that the Hairless gene only works when it gets the proper chemical signals at exactly the right time during the follicle cycle. Now researchers are one step closer to knowing what these signals are and when to give them.

Thompson and colleagues report their findings in the early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


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SOURCE: Beaudoin, G.M.J. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sept. 26, 2005; early online edition.

[aboynamedme]

wonderful find, Tricia!

but how far away is gene therapy away from becoming a reality? it's horrible that pharaceutical coumpanies (in link with the FDA) has turned helping people into such a capital-game. there isn't any profit in cure, which is probably the only thing keeping a full head of hair in the distant future, not to mention people in wheel chairs and as victims of bone/blood disease, and as carriers of various other medical inflictions.

how everyone is well!

-aboy

[Tricia]

IMO, I think gene therapy is the farthest away from development. If anyone else has an opinion on this, please jump in and share your thoughts.

In the search for a cure for baldness, there are three areas of research:

1. drugs
2. hair cloning
3. gene therapy

I estimate that some new drug will come out before 2010. Maybe not a miracle drug, but something better than what we've got. I also think hair cloning will eventually work (who knows when).

I try to be optimistic about it though. Pharmaceutical companies and people at the FDA are balding too. They also want a cure.

[hardcastle]

Thanks for posting all this, Tricia. These articles are good to read on bad hair days

aboy, I'd agree that greed is often a huge troublemaker, but like any powerful force, it's got the potential for good as well. I've heard the argument before that the major pharmaceuticals don't want a permanent end to baldness because they wouldn't be able to market their drugs. However, I don't believe that attitude is holding up a cure - whether gene therapy or follicular neogenesis - for the following reason: drugs are an imperfect and often inconvenient solution. People want a final solution to hair loss, and whoever comes up with this first is going to make an unimaginable amount of money. The drug companies know this. Researchers know this. If anything's fueling the search for a hair loss solution here, believe me, it's greed

And, as Tricia pointed out, many researchers have a personal stake in the matter too - Dr. Ken Washenik, who seems to be the face of hair cloning research right now, was bald before he got a hair transplant.

So I wouldn't give up on a final solution just yet. I don't expect any magical ultimate solution to hair loss tomorrow, but given the progress they seem to be making on cloning and medications, who knows? Remember where we were ten years ago. Since then, they've come out with Propecia, which is considered to be the most effective solution to date, and advanced considerably in research.

I'm not trying to be Pollyanna here, but recent developments are keeping me positive. Thanks again for the article, Tricia.

wonderful find, Tricia!

but how far away is gene therapy away from becoming a reality? it's horrible that pharaceutical coumpanies (in link with the FDA) has turned helping people into such a capital-game. there isn't any profit in cure, which is probably the only thing keeping a full head of hair in the distant future, not to mention people in wheel chairs and as victims of bone/blood disease, and as carriers of various other medical inflictions.

how everyone is well!

-aboy

[HairLossFight.com]

Hardcastle,

I agree, the progress seems pretty encouraging for future treatment modalities. I just hope that what Dr. Khadavi pointed out as a problem with one of the recent experiments in follicular neogenesis doesn't end up derailing things. You can read my recent interview with him if you haven't already by visiting the news page of the site.

Cheers,
Sam