More news on Intercytex from Australia

[Young and Balding]

Please see the article "Hair clones, yeah, yeah" on this page:

http://www.newhairclinic.com.au/media/index.html

Interesting that:
- Dr Martinick believes that it is three years away
- Hair follicles are actually implanted on a mouse where they multiply, and then are excised and transfered to the patient's scalp

[News]

Hmm, this article puzzles me. In the interview with Ken Washenik that I referred to in a recent post, Dr. Washink says that it is not possible to transplant hair follicles from one person to another. He says that the hair follicle itself is immune to rejection, but it would be impossible to isolate it from surrounding cells (e.g. fat cells, blood vessels etc.) that are NOT immune. Surely you would have the same problem if you cultivated the hair follicles in a mouse?

[Young and Balding]

Yeah, that is exactly what I was thinking also, and I don't have an answer unfortunately. However, the Intercytex guys are a totally different group from the Aderans guys (Washenik & Co) so maybe they are doing something differently.

I also don't know how I would feel about having mouse-cultivated hair follicles on my head. Although I'd rather have that than no hair.

[News]

According to the website of Intercytex you will grow the hair on your own head. (No mention of mice.) I think it's possible that the guy who wrote the article got the wrong end of the stick: The drug may have been developed and tested in mice, but I don't think that anyone would attempt to transplant something from a mouse to a human head. The press are so full of %&$!! Most of the time they can't be bothered to do some proper research.

[Tricia]

Dr. Martinick does not really know how they culture the cells at Intercytex. She was making her own conclusions. However, if you read stem cell news (and not just the hair growing kind), you'll see that they have found ways to culture the cells without using any animal products.