We recently published an overview of the ongoing work being done by Dr. Angela Christiano and JAK inhibitors in the treatment of Alopecia Areata.   We are actually conducting a call with Dr. Christiano, the CEO and the CSO of Aclaris today.  We hope to discuss the findings in updated studies done on Alopecia Areata patients, as well as the potential for a JAK inhibitor topical in the treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia (Male and Female Pattern Baldness).  The content from that interview will be published later this week.

In the meantime, we wanted to inform you of a new study just published in the August 2016 issue of Experimental Dermatology.

Janus Kinase and Alopecia Areata

Strange sounding name, but abbreviated as JAK, this new class of medications work to inhibit a certain type of immune response when it has become misdirected in the human body.  Alopecia Areata is known to be autoimmune in nature. Auto-immunity is the body turning against its own tissues, and comes in countless forms from digestive, to skin, to even organ involvement.  In the case of Alopecia Areata, the primary target for these immune cells is the skin and as a bi-product, the hair.  You will often see patients with other inflammatory skin conditions alongside the presentation of patchy hair loss.

There is also some ongoing discussion that inflammation plays an integral role in the progression of typical male and female pattern baldness (thinning and recession) that billions of people experience.  Currently the treatments for Alopecia Areata are minimal, and include painful topical steroid injections.  Likewise, the list of approved treatments for “run-of-the-mill” hair loss isn’t very long.  In fact it includes only Propecia (finasteride) and Rogaine (Minoxidil).  However if a connection can be made between the inflammation that JAK inhibitors block, and the inflammation found in typical “hair loss”, we may have a new treatment on our hands.

JAK3 Reduced Lymphocytes In Scalp Tissue

Left: CXCL10 Elisa at baseline and 4 Weeks. Middle: ALADIN Heat Map Control & AA Patient at Baseline and 4 Weeks. Right: ALADIN Plot of Control & AA patient at baseline and 4 weeks.

Tofacitinib (say that 10 times fast), has been the standard experimental treatment for Alopecia Areata in the JAK inhibitor realm lately.  This study sought to add understanding to exactly why it works so well in treating Alopecia Areata.   Without getting too deep into the science of the study, they decided to actually measure and monitor the levels of inflammatory cells before and during treatment.  The theory was that they would see a drastic decrease in the offending “processes” known to lead to the development of AA.

And this is exactly what they found.  Once again not only did the patient fully regrow their hair, but the scientists observed a marked decrease in the lymphocyte and chemokine (fancy words for autoimmune) activity.  What’s interesting is that they saw this decrease both in the scalp skin, and in circulating blood levels.

Side effects of JAK3 Inhibitors in Alopecia Areata

Even more interesting is the ongoing question of safety and potential side effects.  They have established already that the treatment works, but larger scale studies are necessary before approval can be attained for widespread use and prescribing. During this study they did a full workup on the patient and baseline and at found no abnormalities in her blood markers, nor were there any reported side effects.  Even though this is just a single patient, this provides yet another example of optimism in the question of side effects.

Continued Treatment Necessary

After Stopping Treatment: Left panel, 8 weeks following cessation of treatment. Right panel, 16 weeks following cessation of treatment. The patient exhibited almost complete loss of scalp hair.

At a dose of just 5mg twice a day, the patient had partial regrowth at the 1 month mark, and had fully regrown both her scalp hair, and eyebrows by the 4 month mark.  This came with no side effects, an obviously reduced autoimmune response, and no abnormal blood markers.

However, after stopping treatment, it took only 16 weeks for the patient to return to baseline:  experiencing once again complete loss of scalp and eyebrow hair.  So treatment must be continued in order for results to be maintained, and this is exactly why side effects and proper dosing are the question currently on the table.

You can read the study here:  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/exd.13060/full

The post New Study Confirms JAK3 Effective in Alopecia Areata appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Organ Technologies and Riken have partnered with Kyocera to head up one of the most promising new hair regeneration projects in the industry.  If successful, it will enable the generation of large quantities of follicles from just a small cell extraction.  You can read more about the project here.  We also encourage you to view the following YouTube video for a very interesting overview of their work.

Interview Participants:

• Keiko Nomura:  HairLossTalk Science Writer
• Yasuhiro Sugimura: CEO of Organ Technologies Inc.
• Koh-ei Toyoshima, PhD:  Researcher of Organ Technologies

Thank you to all the HairLossTalk Forum members who put together this outstanding list of questions.

Hair Primordiums Project Status Update

Keiko:  Question 1:  Based on earlier information that was released, there were still some problems to overcome.  The process related to culturing mesenchymal stem cells and epithelial stem cells was a critical issue that had not yet been resolved.  Have you resolved this issue, and are there any previous roadblocks that have been resolved?

Mr. Toyoshima: Ok, I, Toyoshima [From the Research Team] will answer these questions. I’ve understood the challenge mentioned in this question as a challenge in clinical applications to human beings. Is this a correct understanding?

Keiko:  Yes.  That is correct.

Mr. Toyoshima: For applications of our technology, both mesenchymal stem cells and epithelial stem cells, which are applicable to human clinical applications, are needed.  With respect to the development of the technology to cultivate mesenchymal stem cells, that is papilla cells, being applicable to human clinical trials, we are already in progress now for development.  On the other hand, as for the technology to cultivate epithelial stem cells of follicles, it still remains a significant challenge globally. We are currently in the middle of research and development for this. Based on our recent research results, we finally have some prospects and expect this issue to be resolved in the near future.

Keiko:  That is a huge step toward the clinical application, isn’t it?

Mr. Toyoshima: Yes, in terms of transitioning from basic research to clinical application, we are finally coming out of the basic research phase toward the clinical application phase.

Keiko:  Thank you.  Are there any other roadblocks preventing forward progress on this project?

Mr. Toyoshima: Well… at this point, the challenge which I’ve just mentioned is the biggest challenge we face. There are other challenges, but they are rather related to engineering, so in terms of a roadblock for the clinical applications, we believe our issue has been almost solved.

Keiko:  Thank you.  I believe we’ve already touched Question #2.  As you said, the challenge relating to epithelial stem cells remains as the biggest challenge.

Mr. Toyoshima: Yes, as I mentioned earlier, we consider the development of the technology to culture epithelial stem cells as the most significant issue we face. In order to regenerate a clinically effective number of follicles, a sufficient number of cells need to be secured while satisfying the safety and functional requirements. These are tough challenges, so also pose major issues to us.

Keiko:  Question 3:  To what extent do you think that the newly created hair (follicles) will mimic the donor hair (follicles) in terms of gene expression and visual traits?

Mr. Toyoshima: For regeneration of hair, the most important thing is whether hair can be regenerated or not rather than gene expression. In this sense, we conducted animal testing to regenerate hair and analyzed its form, and the internal structures which characterize hair. Further, we analyzed hair growth cycles.  Hair grows and falls in cycles and in certain intervals between growth and resting phases.  So we conducted analysis on these patterns. These analyses indicated that the form, internal structure, and especially hair cycle of regenerated hair will typically match all those traits from the follicles where the cells were originally collected.  These factors are the most critical factors in defining the length and width of hair. As we succeeded in regenerating all of these factors, we feel that we have succeeded in regenerating all the characteristics which largely contribute to formation of naturally growing hair. We have succeeded in regenerating hair similar to the original normal hair.

Keiko:  This may be a very simplistic question, but some people were born with rather thick hair while other people with soft thin hair. There are many types of hair. So with your regeneration technology, are you saying that regenerated hair will have characteristics identical to the characteristics of the original hair even in situations like this?

Mr. Toyoshima: Yes, that is correct. For example, in the case of patients with male pattern alopecia, on the back of the head, they usually maintain the quality of hair which is similar to the quality they used to have when they were younger. So we believe that characteristic can be regenerated. If it is a thick hair, thick hair can be regenerated, and if thin hair, thin hair can be regenerated.

Keiko:  Question 4:  Thus far in your research, have you been able to attain an unlimited number of cells from a single biopsy? If not, what is the maximum number of total cells that can be amplified from the donor sample?  How many new follicles would this typically result in?

Mr. Toyoshima: This is a great question. Generally speaking, it is said that there is a limit to stem cell proliferation. It is generally known that the stem cell function is lost with proliferation, therefore yes, there is limit to stem cell proliferation. In case of human follicular papilla cells having the function as the mesenchymal stem cells, the stems cells can be multiplied by several thousands of times in 3 weeks when we use our technologies. On the other hand, as for the epithelial stem cells, as I mentioned earlier we are still in research for this, therefore there is only a small number of human cases. Consequently, an accurate value for this case is yet to be determined in the near future. However, collectively from these researches, we think that we may be increase follicles at least by about 1,000 times.

Keiko:  Question 5:  Several users have scars from previous hair transplants.  Both from strip excision and follicular unit extraction on the back of the head.  There is also some damage to the skin tissue in the recipient areas towards, the front. One of our most popular questions was whether primordium hairs will be capable of growing through these and other types of scars (such as burn scars), and be capable of healthy growth in such an environment?

Mr. Toyoshima: We appreciate their interests in this and asking this question, and would like to offer our technologies to as many patients with scars as possible. Hair transplant procedures often leave some damage in the skin, forming scar tissues thus significantly deforming the subcutaneous tissues structure, or resulting in loss of the subcutaneous fat layer underneath the skin. However, follicles have a characteristic which enables them to grow through normal hair cycles by interacting with the surrounding tissue. As far as the effectivity on such skin with a serious damage, the effects of our hair follicle germ regeneration technology in such case is yet to be determined, therefore we believe that we still need to conduct significant verification for that purpose. However, it is not that I have only bad news. With our hair regeneration therapy using the hair follicle germ regeneration technology, we can artificially combine cellular tissues to tailor to the specific needs of the patient. Therefore, we believe in principle, that even for a patient with various special clinical requirements such as scars, we will be able provide a hair regeneration therapy for these individuals in the future, which is carefully tailored to such needs.

Keiko:  Is this also true in case of the scars generated not by previous hair transplants but other types of scars such as burn scars?

Mr. Toyoshima: Yes, that is correct. And we believe that if we can accomplish this, we will be able to make an even bigger contribution to society. However, I have to say that once we begin making progress towards clinical testing, we’ll be better able to provide you with a clear response on whether this can really be done or not.  At this point, please forgive us for this level of response.

Keiko:  Sorry to press you on this, but what time range are we talking about, when you anticipate knowing more?  Is it something 5 years or 10 years from now?

Mr. Toyoshima: Well… we first have to develop a technology to treat regular alopecia patents. As for other types of patients such as those with highly advanced alopecia, etc, we will consider a therapy  after that.

Keiko:  Ok, I understand that these cases with special requirements will be handled in subsequent phases.  Question 6:  Regarding the process of delivering the hair follicle primordiums to the scalp:  Do you anticipate this being an automated process performed by a device, or will it require the hand of a trained and skilled surgeon, similar to hair transplants?  As a follow up to this, have you seen success injecting the follicle primordium directly into the scalp with a needle, or must they be delivered to the skin with an incision?

Mr. Toyoshima: We believe that in order to provide our technologies to a broader range of people, we will eventually need to automate the process using a device. However, the current level of the skills owned by surgeons specialized in hair transplants is excellent, generating great results in treatments of alopecia patients. Therefore, we would like to leverage on such skills of surgeons as much as possible. Eventually, these skills are accumulated resulting in certain processes. Therefore, we believe that it is appropriate to develop automation devices incorporating such processes.

Keiko:  Does this mean that such automation would not require a surgeon with special skills and would enable a regular clinic to provide your therapy?

Mr. Toyoshima: Well, of course, unfortunately considering potential cost of such devices, it might be difficult for any clinic to provide the therapy… however, we are aiming to have our therapy to be implemented in as simple as possible of an environment. As for the question about needles… Our transplanting technique was developed based on the FUT, Follicular Unit Transplantation, which is the surgical autografting used by hair transplant surgeons for hair loss treatment. The needle/surgical knife used for FUT is extremely small. The size of the surgical knife we used for our published research paper is almost same as that of a needle.  Therefore, although we will do a skin incision, it will be a very small incision.

Keiko:  Meaning it will not leave any scar?

Mr. Toyoshima: Yes, it will leave almost no scar… the scar will not visible at all. Yes, so the process requires a skin incision, but please understand that the incision will be about the same size as needle head.

Keiko:  Thank you.  Question 7:  On the topic of aesthetics:  Do you think the direction of hair growth be controlled by natural processes in the skin, or will the placement and positioning of the primordium cells by a qualified surgeon cells play a role?  There was previous mention of using a “Nylon Thread Guide” for controlling hair-growth direction, and to limit epithelial cyst formation.  Is this still the current plan?

Mr. Toyoshima: This hair-growth direction, which is the flow of hair, is determined when hair is generated. For our published paper, we create a small incision using a small surgical knife, which, as I mentioned earlier, is in the same direction as the hair flow. When the hair follicle germ is grafted in this incision, all hair was regenerated in the same direction as the original hair flow. On the other hand, as an experiment, we also created a small incision for grafting in the opposite direction. This was an experiment using body hair. It is known that the connection direction of arrector pili muscles of hair completely align with hair flow. The results determined that the connection direction of the arrector muscles of hair, as well hair flow, was actually influenced by the surrounding tissues.

Keiko:  So this is what you mentioned earlier that transplanted follicles interact with the surrounding tissues…

Mr. Toyoshima: Yes, we believe this can happen. This is dependent on types of hair, the condition of skin for transplant, etc., therefore although we cannot say that it will definitely happen, we think that the direction of regenerated hair growth will align with that of the original hair. For this, we plan to develop a clinical model in the clinical research in the future in order to further study this point. As for the “Nylon Thread Guide”, the most important objective of using it is to prevent a formation of epithelial cyst. As far as the determination of hair growth, it is used to determine the direction of connection with epidermal direction. Transplanted hair follicle germ should not form a cyst, under the skin, therefore in order to prevent such case, we need to make sure that the epidermal layer is firmly attached to the epidermal layer of the transplanted regenerated hair follicle germ. Nylon thread guide is used to ensure this. Therefore, we will probably have to use it in clinical application, and its use is expected to prevent such abnormal results. So we think it is reasonable to use it.

Keiko:  Thank you.  Question 8:  Certain individuals with advanced androgenetic alopecia experience significant miniaturization of follicles and extensive loss on the sides and back of the head. This is the typical location for donor follicles for transplants and with your therapy. As a result, these donor follicles may be extensively affected by AGA prior to the procedure.  What can these people expect from your therapy?

Mr. Toyoshima: This question rather relates to the AGA clinical condition; therefore, I believe it would be more appropriate for a physician to talk about this. However, I can provide you with an answer from a biologist perspective. It is thought that the site of AGA onset is already determined in the stage wherein the follicular organ is generated, and follicular papilla cells store information such as destiny, determining the site of male pattern alopecia onset, to a certain degree. Consequently, follicles on the back of the head and those on the front of the head will have different destinies, and it is thought that patients with alopecia develop the disease in a specific site in this manner. As the disease gradually progresses, follicles on the back of the head and also those on the side of the head also become miniaturized. However, even though the disease has progressed into those areas, there is still a large number of normal follicles left. Based on this, we are currently conducting a human-tissue study using dermal tissues collected from the back of AGA patients’ heads in order to verify the possible number of normal follicles which can be collected from such areas, and whether cells collected from such areas have the function needed for follicular regeneration, etc. So far, we have found out that there is a large number of normal follicles on the back of AGA patients. We believe that collecting the cells from such areas will definitely result in regeneration of normal follicles.

Keiko:  Question 9:  Studies have shown that the hair shaft thickness seems to be determined by dermal papilla size. If this is true then could it be possible to also control hair shaft thickness with the hair primordium method? 

Mr. Toyoshima: Based on past research, the size of the follicle (that is, the size of papilla cells… the cells used in developing regenerated hair follicle germ) was determined based on the type of hair from which it had been derived. To put it more technically:  follicle size arises from a biological principle that organ size, its density, and the distribution pattern is determined by a theory called the reaction-diffusion system. So using this principle, when we changed regenerated hair follicle germ, we found that the number of regenerated hair per a regenerated hair follicle germ, varies according to the germ size. In other words, the number of regenerated follicles may be controlled based on the size of the hair follicle germ, and type of papilla cells.  It is thought that the size can be controlled to a certain degree by changing the type of follicles where the papilla cells are derived from.

Keiko:  Thank you.  Question 10:  Suggestion from a user regarding # 8 – Some feel that hair transplants are detectable because natural hair lines do not usually have extremely thick follicles in the front.  Natural hairlines usually include miniaturized follicles and “peach fuzz”.  If you could control hair shaft thickness to varying percentages, would you be able to implant intentionally thinner hairs near the front and achieve a more natural appearance?

Mr. Toyoshima: This is related to one of the earlier questions.  A hair follicle germ that is regenerated intentionally small, will result in a small follicle. As pointed out in the question, therefore, just as done in existing FUT therapy, our technology enables us to regenerate miniaturized follicles with 1-hair in the front, while regenerating thick follicles with 2- or 3-hair toward the back of the head. Therefore, we believe, we can eventually attain a more excellent result compared to the result generated by existing FUT.

Keiko:  Question 11:  The primary advantages of the hair follicle primordium method are well known: (1) A less invasive procedure than hair transplants, and (2) Access to a higher number of hair follicles.  Current methods also fail to deliver density that matches a natural head of hair.  What other advantages are you anticipating for the hair follicle primordium method in comparison with current methods?  For instance, do you expect to be able to archive a higher density or the ability to control hair color?

Mr. Toyoshima: As you pointed out, our technologies enable us to control the density as well as hair color. Based on the results we’ve obtained, when cells used to regenerate hair follicle germ have no melanocyte stem cells, the regenerated hair will have no color. On the other hand, we can mix a cell population, which has been collected from follicles having melanocyte stem cells, to the cells used to regenerate follicular primordium.  One follicular primordium is usually composed of 10,000 units of epithelial stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells.  So mixing only 200 cells containing melanocyte stem cells will produce hair with color. Therefore, we can control the color of hair by adding a small number of melanocyte stem cells. We can change the size of regenerated follicular primordium or control the density in grafting.  Therefore, based on the results we have, it is said that in case of a human being, there are about 60 to 120 hairs growing in an area of 1cm2… and we can easily control that with our technologies.

Keiko:  Question 12:  From your research, how long does it take for a primordium to grow into a fully functional hair follicle after being delivered to the scalp?

Mr. Toyoshima: To answer this question… we have completed only a small number of clinical cases until now, therefore it is still difficult for us to provide you with specific time period. However, while the current FUT therapy generally requires 3 to 6 months before attaining the expected result, the results of our limited cases have indicated that our technology will also attain the expected result in a similar period of time.

Yasuhiro Sugimura: CEO of Organ Technologies Inc.

Keiko:  Question 13 was removed due to translation difficulties.  Question 14:  Previous estimates targeted the availability of the technology to be in “practical use” by 2020.  Does practical use mean commercial availability to the general public?  If so, does this mean that human trials would need to begin a year or two before 2020?

Mr. Sugimura: Yes, as you pointed out, although with an assumption that there is no specific problems, when we say “putting the technologies into use”, we mean “starting to offer it to the general public as a treatment not covered by health insurance”.
Relating to Question #15, we first plan to put the technologies into use in Japan, therefore we need to go through a certain set of procedures as the preliminary steps, in accordance with the “New Act on Regenerative Medicine”, and obtain a regulatory notification on our technology as a Class 2 Regenerative Medicine. The clinical study starts only after we receive that notification. Therefore we are thinking to start a small-scale clinical study to evaluate its safety and effectiveness in 2018.

Keiko:  You have already touched on this, but in terms of offering this therapy to people around the world, will a separate regulatory approval process be required in each country?

Mr. Sugimura: Yes, each country requires its own registration/approval.  But, as far as we talk about the Japanese market, we are planning to offer it to the general public as a treatment in 2020.

Keiko:  As you have already touched, for the start date in each country included in Question #15, each country requires a separate regulatory approval, therefore the start date will vary depending on the completion of such regulatory approval process in each country?

Mr. Sugimura: Yes, you are correct.

Keiko:  Thank you.  Question 16:  There has been some concern that a procedure like this would not be affordable to the majority of the consumer public.  An average hair transplant costs between $8,000 and $12,000 USD (827k – 1.2m Yen). Does your company anticipate this procedure costing less than, similar to, or more than a typical hair transplant procedure?

Mr. Sugimura: This may not be the answer you find interesting, but to be honest with you, we are currently still in research for some parts, so it is difficult for us to determine.  Therefore, at this point we are not ready to discuss about the pricing range. Generally speaking, the price is usually expensive during initial commercial stage, and frankly speaking, we have to admit the same for our case as well. However, after that, as the number of patients increases, we believe that we will be able to better control the price, and we definitely should be able to do so. Therefore, this is our long-term plan, but we plan to eventually lower the price to the level at which anybody can benefit from this therapy.

Keiko:  Thank you.  Question 17:  “The regenerated hair follicle germ will be packaged and delivered to a medical facility for use in transplantation therapy for the patient.” Patients have wondered:  Does your company plan to partner with and license the collection procedure to local clinics in major cities around the world, to be shipped to Japan for culturing and amplification, and back to the clinics for grafting, or will all patients need to come to Japan?

Mr. Sugimura: As I mentioned earlier, when it is first offered, it will be offered to general public as a treatment not covered by health insurance, and we first plan to focus only on the Japanese market. We do this as we want to ensure the effectiveness and safety, in order to properly gauge the clinical effects.  Then, within several years after that, we have our sights set on putting the technologies into use in the major markets such as US, Europe and Asia. So in this sense, yes, we are already considering this plan. As far as the business model to implement overseas, although we have not worked out the details yet, we are thinking of setting up the process of processing cells itself within each overseas market, by this I mean that we envision to establish a facility to process cells within each market for treatment in order offer this therapy.

Keiko:  Question 18:  Surgeon skill plays a significant role in creating a natural looking result.  As part of the previous question, do you plan to license this technology to surgeons worldwide, or do you have any plans to create devices which may help automate the grafting process to make results more consistent and uniform?

Mr. Sugimura: Actually as regards to this point, for the regenerative treatment that we first think of, we have already incorporated the marketability considerably.  Therefore, in that sense, we have consciously developed a highly versatile business model wherein surgeons’ skills used in existing hair transplants may be utilized, unmodified. However, on the other hand, as you pointed out, we recognize that surgeon skill plays a significant role. So, at the initial phase, we also plan to use only the surgeons having the level of skills which meets our criteria in order to enables us to ensure stable effectivity and safety. Eventually, in the future, we plan to transfer our technologies to surgeons at clinics in order to increase the number of certified surgeons certified in order to have our technology widely used. As for the last question of automating the transplanting process, as Toyoshima has touched on this earlier, we think that automating the transplanting process is an effective means to ensure stable effects. Therefore, we would like to consider developing a device to automate follicle transplants in the future.

Keiko:  Question 19:  Also as a follow-up to the previous 2 questions:  If this method succeeds, demand will be in the hundreds of millions of people.  Can you describe your current thinking on how production could be expanded to meet such a large demand?

Mr. Sugimura: At this point now, we have already started considering about production stability and efficiency. And, as we announced in the recent press release, this led us to reach an agreement with KYOCERA Corporation to jointly develop cell processing devices, etc. to produce follicular primordiums. Eventually, we believe that not only automating the follicular primordium production process, which is only a part of the entire production process, but also automating the entire production process will enable us to further increase the production capacity efficiently. We are also considering to set up treatment locations or cell processing bases in major cities around the world. Therefore, in order to achieve this, we will need to establish a system/structure which allows us to offer our therapy at a broader range of locations including clinics. As a company, by increasing the production capacity, we aim to offer our service to about 10,000 patients a year around the world, therefore we recognize the need for developing a system/structure which enables us to achieve this goal.

Keiko:  Question 20:  An interesting idea came from one of our users:  Can cultured and amplified cells be stored in cryopreservation for future use in the same individual?  We call it a “top-up/top-off session” in the USA.  This basically means ongoing additions to maintain or improve density or appearance as hair continues to degrade from the effects of androgens.

Mr. Sugimura: Well, this question seems more related to the research aspect…. But I will tackle this by jumping straight to the conclusion. We actually have already started research and development for this, and based on our research, we believe that it is possible to freeze and store cells collected from a patient for future uses. By storing frozen follicle stem cells, a patient would have to undergo follicle collection process only once. When he/she requires additional treatment, his/her frozen cells would be utilized for production, therefore we believe that this would significantly reduce burden to a patient for his/her 2nd treatment and onwards, and also in terms of continuous treatment, this would significantly improve the level of contribution to a patient. In terms of such market needs, we are glad to hear that your website members are talking about it because we launched this project with this idea already in our plan.

The post Organ Technologies – Hair Primordiums Status Update appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Previously we wrote about Histogens “Hair Stimulating Complex” research project which was received with quite a bit of curiosity due to the notable before and after photos provided by the research team.  One of those photos that we were provided can be seen in the header of this article. In our article back in August:  Histogen – Hair Stimulating Complex Research Update, Dr. Gail Naughton announced their hopes to finalize an agreement with a company in China for the development and commercialization of Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC).

Today they’ve announced that this agreement has been finalized.  This opens the way for Histogen and their partner in China – Pineworld Capital, Ltd to begin laying out a plan for human clinical trials and ultimately, commercialization in China.   Pineworld is an affiliate of Huapont Life Sciences, a $3 Billion dollar pharmaceutical company that specializes in research and development of dermatological and oncological drug products, so they are legitimately-backed and well-equipped to carry out necessary trials.

HSC Trials in Mexico, and the United States

With the finalization of the agreement for R&D and trials in China, Histogen will continue pursuing its goal for an additional $11 million in funding to support a second Phase trial in the US for men and a Phase 1 trial in the US for women.  They are hopeful that the data from these trials, and potentially one in Mexico will support an additional Phase 3 trial in the United States by Fall of 2017.  Provided the data is positive, an IPO may be in the works by January 2018.  These timelines are of course subject to change, but if you are Subscribed, you won’t miss any of our updates as the months roll by.

We have confirmed with Histogen that there are no new opportunities on the table regarding partnerships in Japan, and the license from Mexico is still pending.

Histogen Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC)

73% Increase in Hair Counts at 1 Year

Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC) is an injectable treatment for hair loss. The injected solution stimulates follicle stem cells and has been shown to encourage significant new hair growth.  In trials done thus far, 84.6% of patients receiving just one HSC treatment showed a notable increase in terminal hair count and hair thickness at 12 weeks.  The treatment is planned to consist of three injections, so significantly better results are possible in upcoming trial data.

“We are honored to align with Huapont Life Sciences to bring HSC into China,” said Dr. Gail Naughton, Histogen CEO and Chairman of the Board. “With its strong dermatology portfolio, Huapoint is an ideal partner for developing and commercializing Histogen’s unique hair growth product to the world’s most populous nation. Hair loss affects men and women around the world, and our goal is to find the best partners in each region to bring solutions to this global problem.”

HSC has shown excellent safety, and cosmetically significant hair growth in two clinical trials thus far.  Their technology process, which mimics the embryonic environment including conditions of low oxygen and suspension, cells triggered to become multipotent naturally produce proteins that are important in the stimulation of hair follicles.

“Huapont Life Sciences is excited to partner with Histogen to bring its innovative product to the millions of men and women in China suffering from hair loss,” said Hayden Zhang, Head of Investments for Huapont and CEO of Pineworld Capital. “By working closely together, we are confident HSC will enjoy tremendous market success.”

Make Sure You’re Subscribed

We encourage you to bookmark our Histogen HSC Project Update page and keep an eye on the list of articles near the bottom for ongoing updates.  Better yet, please make sure you are subscribed to our Hair Loss News newsletter, which goes out only once every 2 weeks.  You can also customize your preferences and get real-time updates on topics that are of interest to you.

The post Histogen Signs Deal for Commercialization of HSC in China appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Samumed has been a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma for nearly a decade.  An intriguing story of a brilliant businessman (slash) mad scientist with a lot of powerful friends, and a track record of successful projects under his belt.  Already worth $4 billion himself, Samumed’s CEO Osman Kibar heads up the highest-valued biotech company on the planet:  a whopping $12 billion.

And they’re right here in HairLossTalk’s back yard:  San Diego, CA.

After having familiarized myself with their company, and the long, strange story leading up to where they are today, I was on the verge of driving to their front door and saying a quick hello.   But having already been directed to their media contact company (Brunswick Group) by email and receiving zero response from the San Diego team (despite my charming assertion that we could “do lunch” since I’m in the neighborhood), I decided not to risk any awkward encounters.

Needless to say, I’m still going to consider it.  Maybe I’ll add Osman on Facebook first and tell him I like his dog.

Video: Samumed SM04554

The story of this company alone could fill pages, and at the risk of stealing Forbe’s thunder in doing just that, I’ll give you a summary and save you the time:  Mr. Kibar has managed to create a product offering that has some extremely successful CEO’s quitting their jobs to join his team, and several high net-worth individuals dumping truckloads of money into his company.  And a new hair loss treatment is part of their research.

The new move in biotech surrounding “curing aging” and regenerative medicine is exciting to say the least.  It’s relevant that a company which apparently leads the pack has hair loss in its sights, alongside helping us live forever.

What’s Samumed Got To Do With Me?

So exactly what are they doing and why do you care as an individual affected by hair loss?

Well, until just this past September 17th, at the “13th Medical Innovations Summit” for the Royal Society of Medicine (sounds important right?) the entire project had been mostly under wraps.

They had already completed a Phase 1 SM04554 trial for their hair loss product called SM04554.  And then in March, the data for their Phase 2 SM04554 trial was presented to the American Academy of Dermatology in Washington, DC.  It showed marginal success at maintaining and regrowing hair in people with androgenetic alopecia (that’s you, unless you have patchy hair loss).

But is marginal really marginal when it comes to maintaining hair?   Hint:  that’s exactly what Propecia does, with a nice batch of side effects that may or may not ever appear.

They presented photos of people’s heads and the hair counts before and after treatment.  Those who used the 0.15% topical solution of SM04554 saw an increase in hair count of about 9.6%.  Those who used more (a 0.25% solution) only saw a 6.9% increase.   They focused on men with more advanced stages of baldness (Norwood 4 to 6), and the trial lasted only 90 days.

View the Samumed Phase 2 Hair Loss Results PDF

Those of you in the “cool crowd” of hair loss knowledge may recognize 90 days as an insufficient duration for any hair loss treatment.  They did continue hair count data until day 135 but its still very short for a hair loss trial.

Some of the most well-known proven treatments take a minimum of 3-6 months to start showing results, and upwards of a full year before your follicles really find their groove and you like what you see in the mirror.  In fact the first 90 days are typically the months where most people throw in the towel due to shedding.

Then again, you’ve got treatments like JAK3 Inhibitors for Alopecia Areata which pretty much cure the condition the day they’re first applied, and trial participants didn’t see full regrowth until the 16 week mark.  I suppose if you want to use anything as your gold standard for exactly how long it takes in the *best* possible scenario, this would be it, and it still took 30 days longer than this Samumed trial.

Needless to say the stuffy, highly educated elite in hair research weren’t the least bit impressed with a 10% increase in hair counts, and some were even confused by the reduced effectiveness with the higher dose.   So exactly why did that happen?

Samumed 04554, Wnt, and Hair Loss

On September 17th, Samumed finally came forward with their business model.  After having attained hundreds of millions in funding, and a valuation of nearly $12 billion, they decided to let the cat out of the bag.

CEO Osman Kibar explained in his presentation that they were seeing unbelievable results in countless disorders with one interesting technique:  controlling Wnt signaling. And apparently Wnt can only be stimulated or suppressed into a “Goldilocks” zone. Do it too much and its effectiveness is reduced.  Do it too little, and it wont work as well.  This is exactly why the trials were helpful. Now they know that a 0.25% solution is less effective than a 0.15% solution.

Video:  CNBC Interview with Samumed CEO

Without getting too technical, here’s what that means:  their overall goal is to restore the regeneration capabilities of tissues, bones, cartilage, etc., to those of a newborn baby.  As we age, the ability for our systems to accomplish this become damaged, inefficient, or overefficient.

The result (according to Samumed) is the development of many diseases.  Osteoarthritis, Scleroderma, Alzheimers, vision degradation, gray hair, wrinkles, and (also according to Samumed) even hair loss.  “Wnt” is the thing which controls this regenerative process, and their treatments modulate Wnt to restore proper function.  Where it lacks, they improve it.  Where its damaged, they repair it.  And where it’s overactive, they suppress it.

According to their data, its working quite well.  In the presentation, they showed videos of intentionally paralyzed rats walking again after a single injection (and sufficient time for healing).  Degenerative disks were replaced by growth of entirely new disks.  Arthritic joints received an injection and regrew all the protective cartilage.

Scleroderma really hit home for me, as my mother recently passed away from this debilitating autoimmune condition which causes thickening of soft tissue.  This would be an example of overactivity of Wnt and their treatment suppressed it, resulting in normalization of the tissue.

But what about hair loss?   In the last 17 years of running this site I’ve never heard someone hypothesize that hair loss is due to a breakdown in regenerative function.  And now you see exactly why those in the hair loss community are unsure whether SM04554 is going to perform at all.

Still, seeing increase in hair counts means something.  It means that simply by correcting an element related to aging, they fixed an element of hair loss.  Nobody claims to know exactly what causes hair loss.  We assume its androgen and gene related.  Propecia works because it blocks the formation of an androgen.

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed to see nothing more than a couple stained slides showing some cells for the “hair loss” portion of the presentation (skip forward to 8:45).  But this really means nothing, aside from the fact that my “hair nerd” status probably just isn’t awesome enough to understand what I’m looking at.  Like most people, I want to see previously bald heads gloriously covered in Fabio-like manes.

But I don’t think Samumed is touting the hair loss treatment as their flagship offering in the first place.  It was effective.  That much they’ve proven, and they have indicated that they will continue to include it in their ongoing research.

SM04554 Hair Counts

Can SM04554 Replace Propecia, and its Side Effects?

So here’s the deal with Samumed’s SM04554.  Lets entertain a cup-half-full approach and look at hair loss’s most famous treatment:  Propecia.  Most guys can expect to at least maintain hair count, or increase hair count with Propecia by the 1 year mark.  Well guess what?   According to the data, that’s what we can expect from Samumed’s new product.  So is SM04554 a Propecia killer?

We need more data.  Longer durations.  And just for the fun of it, toss in some more people too.

The number of people who saw increased hair growth in the Propecia FDA trials was negligible.  Yet nobody has any problem rattling off “Propecia” as the first line solution for anyone experiencing thinning hair.  Propecia is without doubt the most widely used treatment for hair loss on the planet. Between 2004 and 2008, Merck Pharmaceuticals saw over $1.7 billion in Propecia sales, and yet all it will really do is help you keep your hair.

Maybe.  Because its Safer.

The safety profile of SM04554 is the takeaway here.  There were almost no relevant adverse events reported from the trial aside from skin irritation.  Now think about that for a minute.  Complete maintenance of hair count, with an average 10% increase, and no side effects.  While most people don’t see side effects on Propecia, those who do can sometimes report significant ones which adversely affect both their mood and sexuality.

SM04554 Side Effects

 

If you were offered a treatment that could completely stop your hair loss, without any of the side effects that come with Propecia, would you take it?

We are living in an exciting time for hair research.  The myriad of unique therapies which are in the Pipeline right now are bringing different benefits over existing treatments.  Having something which might maintain and regrow a little hair without testicle pain, watery semen, and libido loss is huge.  And imagine the results if you combined it with Rogaine or other treatments?  If Samumed can deliver that, they’ll have something worthwhile to offer.

We are hot on the trail for more information on this and several other projects currently underway, so …

Make Sure You’re Subscribed

We encourage you to bookmark our Samumed SM04554 Project Page and keep an eye on the list of articles near the bottom for ongoing updates.  Better yet, please make sure you are subscribed to our Hair Loss News newsletter, which goes out only once every 2 weeks.  You can also customize your preferences and get real-time updates on topics that are of interest to you.

The post Samumed Includes Hair Loss in Regenerative Medicine Platform appeared first on HairLossTalk.

So exactly where is hair loss inherited from? Mother’s father like they tell us? An unpredictable unorganized appearance throughout family members? Dr. Richard Lee addresses the genetics of hair loss, and gives the solid scientific answer to this age old question.

Genetics – A Major Cause of Hair Loss

Dr. Ken Washenik, medical director of the Aderans Research Institute, has an amusing and straightforward retort to alopecia androgenetic patients who tell him that there is no history of MPB in their family. He simply says, “Now there is”.

Unquestionably, the two most important factors in the etiology of the common patterned loss of scalp hair known as male pattern baldness (MPB) are the genetic predisposition and the dependence on androgens. Without both components, MPB does not occur. Whereas the hormones involved in MPB (primarily testosterone and dihydrotestosterone) have been identified, the inheritance of MPB remains only partially solved.

Hair Loss Inherited from Mothers Side?

It’s an enduring and common misconception among patients that Male Pattern Baldness is ‘inherited from the mother’s side’. Well, that statement is neither right nor wrong. Pattern baldness can be inherited from the mother’s side. But it can also be inherited from the father’s side. Despite the universal interest in the genetics of Male Pattern Baldness, there is a surprisingly small number of scientific studies in regards to the genetics of Male Pattern Baldness and there is only one known extensive family study on Male Pattern Baldness. This study of hair growth patterns in 22 families concluded that common pattern baldness was an autosomal dominant phenotype in men and an autosomal recessive phenotype in women. However, the validity of these results are controversial because of a lack of details regarding examination methods and sampling errors of this study, which was published in 1916.

Despite the fact that the entire human genome, comprising approximately 30,000 genes in the human DNA, was completely mapped out as of April 2003, the gene or, more likely, genes responsible for MPB, have not been identified. Studies of the genes (on chromosome Xq11.2^q12) encoding the two 5alpha-reductase isoenzymes show that they are not the genes associated with male pattern baldness.

What is known is that the age of onset, the rate of progression, and the pattern of follicular miniaturization are all influenced by heredity. Generally, the earlier the onset of balding, the more extensive the degree of hair loss will eventually be.

There are often times when an accelerated rate of progression of MPB will coincide with some other event, such as a change in medication, or the onset of another medical disorder, or a change in habits, etc. Although these events may cause hair loss, they do not precipitate or aggravate MPB.

Hair Loss Inherited from Fathers Side?

A study examining 410 men with premature baldness found evidence of a genetic influence from the father’s side in only 236 cases. Hair loss similarities between father and son have also been observed in another study in regards to the frequency of MPB in brothers of men having prematurely bald fathers (66%) compared with brothers of men with unaffected fathers (46%). The relatively strong association of MPB between fathers and sons in this study was not consistent with a simple Mendelian autosomal or sex-linked dominant inheritance and suggested that several genes (a polygenic etiology) may be responsible for MPB. As further evidence against a single and/or X-linked gene being responsible for MPB is the observation that only 33% of the fathers of 18 women suffering from severe pattern baldness also had MPB. These findings suggest that other autosomal genes play an important role in the expression of MPB.

Blame Them Both!

Considering the high proportion of men affected by MPB, its distribution in the general population, the increased risk of MPB as the number of affected close relatives increases, and the high risk of inheritance from either or both affected parents, one can support a strong argument in favor of a polygenic inheritance.

It seems ironic that with all the knowledge that has been accumulated in regards to MPB in the past several decades, we still do not know the exact genetic inheritance of MPB. What is known is that the genes are autosomal (not on the X or Y chromosomes), dominant (as opposed to recessive), and have variable penetrance (so it may not affect siblings of the same parents to the same degree).

References:
Ellis JA, Stebbing M, Harrap SB: Genetic analysis of male pattern baldness and the 5alpha-reductase genes. J Invest Dermatol. 110(6):849-53, 1998
Harris H: The inheritance of premature baldness in men. Ann Eugenics 13:172-181, 1946
Neale MC, Cardon LR: Methodology for Genetic Studies in Twins and Families. NATO ASI Series. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992
Kuster W, Happle R: The inheritance of common baldness: Two B or not two B?
J Am Acad Dermatol 11:921-926, 1984 Salamon T: Genetic factors in male pattern alopecia. In Baccaredda-Boy A, Moretti G, Frey JR (eds): Biopathology of Pattern Alopecia. New York, Karger, pp 39-49, 1968

The post Hair Loss: Inherited from Mother or Fathers Side? appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Back in September, we announced a revolutionary new topical treatment for Alopecia Areata which is being created by Aclaris Therapeutics.  A few days later we published an article citing a case study of an Alopecia Areata patient who took a 5mg oral version of the same drug and saw complete hair restoration in only 16 weeks.  So both topical and oral seem to work, but as with many oral medications, the side effects can often be a problem.  So this drug is actually being investigated in two forms:  an oral (ATI-50001) and a topical (ATI-50002).  The topical form is being developed by Aclaris for the less severe Alopecia Areata.  Now it seems that Aclaris has begun forward progress on the oral version, intending it for use in the more advanced cases of Alopecia, known as Totalis and Universalis.

Known as JAK3 inhibitors, these medications work to inhibit immune overactivity in the scalps of people with Alopecia, and effectively treat this condition which has long been considered autoimmune in nature. Today Aclaris announced that they have submitted an Investigational New Drug application (IND) to the FDA for its oral drug candidate ATI-50001 for the treatment of Alopecia Universalis and Alopecia Totalis. Aclaris plans to conduct a human pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (pK/pD) study to evaluate the safety of ATI-50001 in healthy volunteers starting in the first portion of 2017.

IND Filed for New Alopecia Treatments

To date, Aclaris has not filed the IND for the topical version for Alopecia Areata, but we spoke with them today and confirmed that this is in the pipeline for submission in the beginning of 2017.   Either way it looks like the oral version for the more advanced forms of Alopecia will begin trials first, in the beginning of 2017, pending approval from the FDA on the IND.  This process typically takes about 30 days to complete, so the schedule is not expected to slip.

“We are excited to have achieved this important milestone,” said Dr. Stuart Shanler, Chief Scientific Officer. “We look forward to developing ATI-50001 as a potential oral treatment for these severe phenotypes of Alopecia.”

What is an Investigational New Drug Application?

In order for a medication to be properly tested, it needs to be shipped.  There are laws stating that drugs being shipped around the country must be approved, so the IND is basically a request for exemption from the FDA on this rule.  The IND also presents the justification and approval request to the FDA to begin clinical trials on a new medication based on some evidence established thus far, both for effectiveness and safety.   In effect, the IND allows Aclaris to begin trials in 2017 at different locations around the country and begin official clinical trials.

Alopecia is a term that is often used as a catch-all phrase for three major types of autoimmune-related hair loss:  Areata, Totalis, and Universalis, in order of severity and extent of loss of hair.  It is estimated that nearly 7 million people in the United States alone have had, or will experience some form of Alopecia in their lifetimes.  It quite often spontaneously appears, and even sometimes spontaneously resolves, but usually requires some sort of treatment (at least for the less-severe Areata version) including steroid injections.  Both men and women can experience the Alopecia’s, and the majority of them are younger than 30 years old when it first appears.  Treatments for these conditions have, until recently, been few to none.  There are online communities dedicated entirely to Alopecians, which tend to focus mostly on support and sharing, as solutions for the condition have not seen much success.

Clinical Trials to Begin in 2017

ATI-50001 and 50002 come from existing medications for autoimmune conditions such as arthritis, and similar inflammatory diseases.  JAK 3 inhibitors like these can tend to be somewhat potent and harsh on the body when taken orally, so the studies beginning in 2017 will focus heavily on safety and tolerance, at the lowest possible doses.  50002 being the topical version will also be investigated in 2017 as it is expected to have significantly fewer side effects, and – depending on the formula – may prove just as effective.  It’s good to know either way that Aclaris is leading the way to proper FDA approval and proper clinical trials.   JAK3 inhibitors have been viewed as possible treatments for the various forms of Alopecia for many many years, so we are happy to see some forward progress.

Aclaris Licensing ATI-50001 and 50002

Aclaris has exclusively licensed several patents and patent applications involving novel selective Janus kinase (JAK) 1/3 inhibitors, including a patent portfolio from Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. that covers ATI-50001 as well as ATI-50002, a topical formulation also being developed as a potential treatment for alopecia areata. In addition, Aclaris has exclusively licensed a patent portfolio from JAKPharm and Key Organics directed to novel covalently binding, highly selective JAK 3 inhibitors.

They have also licensed a patent from Columbia University related to methods of using JAK inhibitors for the treatment of alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia, and other skin-related conditions. This portfolio includes a recently issued U.S. patent directed to methods of treating alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia and other hair loss disorders by administering ruxolitinib, and a recently issued patent in Japan directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising ruxolitinib, baricitinib or other JAK inhibitors for use in treating alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia and other hair loss disorders.

The post New Alopecia Universalis Totalis Treatment IND Filed with FDA appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Did you catch the LL Cool J reference or am I just seriously old?

We are extremely happy to announce that S5 Cream is once again available for purchase online.  HairLossTalk will not be handling any portion of the sale, billing, manufacturing of the product, but fortunately this is a big wide world, and another company overseas has decided to start manufacturing it again.  So we are hooking you up.

We negotiated with them a special price for HairLossTalk Members, but you must order through links found on our store (which really just sit on a couple “placehodler” pages).

Please bookmark these pages and order through them, ongoing:

S5 Cream | S5 Plus Cream

This will ensure that you get the current price forever, as they may increase over time for other customers.

Please be sure you also review this page for important information on the new products.

What’s this “S5 Plus” Cream Stuff?

Glad you asked.  We’ve managed to talk them into creating a Topical Spironolactone product that has Alfatradiol and Tempol in it as well.  If I were to try and explain to you why this is such a big freaking deal, you would pass out from the boring hair-nerd-ness of the science behind it all.  Let’s just say that really smart people have been discussing Alfatradiol and Tempol for literally years on our forums, and trying to source it as a topical for their hair loss.  One forum user referred to it as equivalent to Propecia, but topical and therefore no side effects.

Its interesting to note that Topical Spironolactone is an Androgen Blocker.  This means it competes for receptor sites where the scary DHT stuff attaches and harms your follicles.  Then you’ve got Propecia which actually reduces quantity of DHT in your bloodstream and tissues.  So the two of them really work synergistically and are 100% complementary to eachother.

So what’s Alfatradiol?  At the risk of simplifying things too much, you can consider it akin to a “Topical Propecia”.  It has been shown to directly reduce the tissue-DHT in the scalp, with none of the side effects of Propecia.

For guys who are sensitive to Finasteride side effects, S5 Plus Cream could be a way for you to reproduce the Propecia+Spiro Regimen all in one topical.  For guys who are on Propecia and doing just fine, well, this gives you a “localized” boost for DHT inhibition.  Meanwhile the Spironolactone will do its job blocking the receptors.

As for the Tempol?  Well that’s even more complex to explain.  Just take our word for it:  Its yet another incredibly interesting angle to hit the whole “Androgenetic Alopecia” problem from.  If you want to know more of the detailed science on both of these, we will be building out the following page with all the data and information we can find on the topic here:  S5 Plus Cream – Experts Review.

Important Info on the New S5 Cream

Since I know you’re going to be lazy and not reat that important information link I posted above, let me scream through its contents really quickly, so I know you’re aware:  The new S5 is the same formula as the previous “S5 Bedtime” cream, which means no caffeine.  The manufacturer is shipping from overseas so its about $25, but this $25 is flat rate, so you can order any quantity and it will never increase.  You have to pay with PayPal, but PayPal has a “Debit/Credit Card” button that you can click and just use your credit card.  And shipping is going to take a long time, which isn’t great news, but its the price we pay for living in a country that feels the need to “protect us from ourselves” by making it illegal for us to get things we need sometimes.  Oh yeah – and that whole thing about making sure you order from the S5 Cream links on our store always.  Super important.

Other Brands of Topical Spironolactone

So I’m just going to keep this real and be blunt.  There’s another website out there claiming to have a Topical Spironolactone product.  You may or may not have heard about it, but we’ve received numerous complaints about the product not arriving, no response from the site owner, and products arriving “separated” (not mixed or prepared properly).  I personally contacted the owner of this site three different times to discuss his Topical Spironolactone product, and he did not respond.  We then found that he’d literally stolen all the content from our S5 Cream Page and pasted it onto his store as his “product description”.  Including the part where I was blathering on about how I’ve been using it as the owner of this site for 7 years, etc.

Usually not good signs for someone you’ve got to trust to make a treatment you can rely on.

The product being received separated and not properly mixed is of greatest concern to me though.   In order to properly make S5 Cream, it needs to be heated to a certain temperature, and some pretty advanced science needs to go down before it will cool and stay properly mixed.  More importantly, if this guy is taking shortcuts, and mixing the stuff in his kitchen with a spatula, then the chances that he’s including *absorption* vehicles that actually work, are slim to none.  That means it may just sit on your scalp and not do a darn thing.

Needless to say I would strongly recommend that you not purchase from this particular website, even though I can’t say the name of it.  We are only supporting this current manufacturer because I personally emailed them the formula and I know they have the facilities to create products like these, because they do it for countless other products on a large scale.  If some more reputable sources come online in the future, we will definitely let you know, because we will definitely be sending them customers on a regular basis either way.

This particular site though which starts with “whole…” – I would avoid.  I’m not a fan of people who steal content.

Cheers – and any order issues, please use the contact form on the manufacturers website.

The post S5 Topical Spironolactone Cream Has Returned appeared first on HairLossTalk.

HairLossTalk is back with new information, news, and updates that I am excited to tell you all about.  The last several months have been filled with redesign work, and new content creation.  So we haven’t really begun reaching out to our subscribers consistently just yet.  But we’re about ready to go, and I (founder of HairLossTalk) will be publishing a weekly blog with a synopsis / mashup of everything new going on that I hope will be useful to you.  This is the first of those posts.

First off, I owe everyone a very sincere apology.  If you hadn’t noticed, HairLossTalk has been stagnant for nearly 7 years.  No updates.  No new news.  Outdated pages, and content.  And aside from the Discussion Forums, the place had pretty much turned into a ghost town.  In fact it’s been so long that even Antoine Dodson happened since then.

HairLossTalk is Back. Hide your Kids, Hide your Wife

[Quick note – there are a LOT of links on this article just because there’s so much to cover.  I hope you’ll forgive that they will each open a new browser window. Future posts won’t have so many links!]

We fully redesigned the Site, so that you can now navigate the entire thing on your mobile device or tablet.  We upgraded the Discussion Forums, added a new Chat Room, and worked hard to update our Mens Hair Loss Treatments and Women’s Hair Loss Treatments guides.
[ps2id id=’pipeline’ target=”/]

Hair Loss Research Pipeline

Even more exciting however, was the Hair Loss Research scene I stumbled upon when reviving this community in 2016.  I was both amazed by the research projects currently under way, and at the same time fully embarrassed that I knew nothing about them.  But the stuff that is going on right now is truly inspiring.

Hair Loss Research Pipeline

We’ve gone from a decade or more of complete stagnancy in the hair research world, to a whole new universe of stem cell and high tech projects that may result in some innovative new treatments and possibly even a cure.  First order of business was to build a Hair Loss Research Pipeline page, which, with the help of our forum user Swoop turned out incredible.  If you haven’t yet, take a look at it on your desktop sometime too.  Each item on the list can be clicked, and it will take you to the Project Page for each company.  There you’ll see all the articles and updates we’ll be posting for each one, ongoing.  Encourage you to bookmark those pages and keep an eye on them, as I commit to always keeping it current.

Now over 65,000 Subscribers!

The site has been around for over 17 years.  That’s a long time.  In that time we actually had over 200,000 subscribers, but as life goes on, and emails grow old, a lot of those people were unreachable.  So we began a reconfirmation campaign and scrubbed our list, which extended back to day 1 in 1999.  After all the bounces and unsubscribes over the past couple months, we’ve ended up with a solid subscribership of over 65,000 people with roughly 10-20 new subscribers daily.

Custom Subscriptions

If you’re subscribed to the hair loss news service we’ve set up, then you’ve begun receiving the latest articles we’ve put out over the last few months.  This was a ramping up phase for us.  We are still looking for writers, and familiarizing ourselves with everything going on in the industry.  If you’re not subscribed yet, please do so.

Add us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

Also please “Like” our Facebook page and Twitter as a lot is coming in the next several months that you won’t want to miss.  Make sure you’re subscribed to our YouTube Channel as well.  Shoot, we even have an Instagram account which you should REALLY follow, for those times when I’ll be going to conferences, running around taking selfies with Angela Christiano, photo bombing a hair transplant demo, or catching the alcohol-inspired shenanigans at the after parties.  You don’t think I’d really do it?  Just watch…

Whats New in Hair Loss?

The big news in the last week was the return of S5 Cream.  Topical Spironolactone, which isn’t available in the United States is now available through an overseas affiliate.  I can’t count the number of HairLossTalk members who were up in arms when it was discontinued a few months back.  Including myself.  I’ve used it intermittently for the last 10 years after quitting Propecia, to try and help maintain my own hair.  Even though there always seem to be a few forum trolls who say that everything “sucks” (and that was no exception this month when we announced that Topical Spironolactone 5% was available again) I am extremely excited for everyone who was relying on it to maintain their hair.

The Return of Topical Spironolactone S5 Cream

I have to say, in an industry where 90% of the options are complete scams, it frustrated me to no end that a couple guys on the forums were actually talking trash about Topical Spironolactone as a treatment concept in general.  I can’t count the number of verified purchasers who emailed me personally over the last 4 months to tell me that their hair was falling out “like crazy” after they ran out of the S5 Cream.  This was no placebo effect.  If you’re going to demonize something, focus on the scams that are so abundant in this scene, not the very small handful of products with solid science backing them!

Because of all those emails of newly falling hair, I felt a moral obligation to find someone, somewhere in the world, who could make it.  And I took this very seriously as well.  I made sure that the manufacturer was someone with an established reputation, who had the facilities to “cook this stuff up” the way it needed to be made (it actually has to be heated and mixed properly, using the appropriate chemistry).

When I found someone, I literally emailed them the keys to the kingdom.  The entire recipe from the previous manufacturer, and sent email after email verifying that procedures were being followed “to the T”.  I look out for my users, and care very deeply for everyone’s success.  The company that makes this product, and the even more impressive S5 Plus Cream that they formulated all on their own, began finally shipping new orders a few days ago.  So a whole bunch of people are extremely happy right now, and should be receiving their products soon.

Hair Research Projects Galore.  And Conferences.

As mentioned above, there is so much going on in hair research that its difficult to even keep up with it.  Anyone out there interested in helping us scour the web for new information, please don’t hesitate to comment below.  To cover the most important stuff:

There was a pretty big conference in Miami near the end of 2015 that one of HairLossTalk’s favorite members “Hellouser” was kind enough to attend.  He set up a GoFundMe campaign that people generously donated to, and was able to go, all expenses paid.  And he didn’t dissappoint.  Upon return, he was loaded with new information, audio clips, interviews and more.  You can see his incredible thread here:  Hellouser at Hair Congress 2015.

Hair Congress 2015

As part of that (and I dropped the ball on this one hardcore) he was also kind enough to transition all of his video content to the HairLossTalk YouTube page.  We got a few of them moved over and transcribed, but funds were low and I wasn’t able to cover the expenses tneeded to keep going.

Link to HairLossTalk from your Blog or Website

On the topic of funds – time for a shameless plug:  If you want to help support this site, you can do two very important things for us:  (1)  Try to get some of your products from our online store and (2)  Link to our home page from your blog or website as a valuable resource on the topic of “hair loss”.  Make sure it goes to HTTPS://www.hairlosstalk.com/ as we are now awesome with the SSL certificate for your security. This plays an integral part in this community thriving like it did back in 2007, and will help immensely.

If you run a hair loss blog or website, or a hair transplant clinic or research site, please put a meaningful link to HairLossTalk.com up.  https://www.hairlosstalk.com   PS:  Meaningful means making the text link:  “hair loss”.

Still, from the conference, some good content for the hair biology nerds out there to enjoy:

Hair Congress 2015 presentations

• Differences Between Hairless and Hair-Bearing Scalp
• Minoxidil (Rogaine):  Why it works for some and not for others
• See all the others on Hellousers YouTube channel

Be nice and subscribe to the HairLossTalk YouTube channel also.  We will be bringing hot ladies and sexy man videos in the future, talking about their hair loss.  Promise.  Definitely don’t want to miss that.  Also maybe kitten videos.  Kittens with hair loss.

Our Glorious Leader:  Doctor Takashi Tsuji

Few names illicit such an emotional response from “those in the know” right now.  Dr. Tsuji heads up the research team at Organ Technologies which is working on what many have labeled the most promising research project in the pipeline.   A procedure that has the potential to make hair loss a minor inconvenience, at most.  Its all very complex to explain, so I’ll just summarize with this:  Unlimited numbers of your own hair, injected into balding areas, with the ability to control their color, density, and shaft thickness.

Dr. Takashi Tsuji

It’s been hailed as the next generation hair transplant procedure where your own cells are multiplied after a very non-invasive cellular extraction from your own scalp.  We first introduced the partnership between organ tech and kyocera, and more recently got a status update from the CEO of Organ and researchers from the team at Riken on their Hair Primordiums Project.  You can bookmark their project page and check back periodically for article updates as well.

Rogaine Hair Counts | Hair Transplants

A couple articles put together by one of our users, Swoop, made their debut’s last month as well.  He did some digging into the data behind Rogaine – studies I myself hadn’t even seen before.  Pretty interesting seeing exactly how many hairs you can expect to grow after “X” number of months on Rogaine.

As a hair transplant patient himself, he shared some of his thoughts on the ugly duckling phase of hair transplant surgery.  It was really interesting to learn that hair transplants aren’t over when you walk out of that operating room.  Be sure to check out both of these articles so that you can keep yourself informed on all your options, and better understand how some of the most important hair loss treatments work.

Shseido On the Hair Loss Cure Bandwagon?

Still catching up on all the new research, we covered the hair regeneration project from Shiseido in the race for the cure for hair loss.  This one is remarkably similar in nature to the Kyocera / Riken / Organ Technologies research, with some important differences that I won’t bore you with.  Both however are heavily funded by major corporations that have their dirty little fingers in countless health and beauty industries, so as before, I encourage you to bookmark the Shiseido RCH-01 Asia project page and keep an eye on it for ongoing updates as we publish them.

Histogen HSC – A New Topical Hair Loss Treatment?

Histogen is also in the news lately as they continue to research and test a new topical treatment for hair loss which has shown significant promise in smaller trials already.  Known as Histogen HSC (Hair Stimulating Complex), we did an interview with Dr. Gail Naughton to discuss the current status of the project, and some tentative timelines for what to expect in 2017.

Their initial photos were shockingly impressive, but a lot of forum users expressed some rather intense skepticism, since the person presenting the photos was a physician who was caught doctoring photos on another project he was involved in.  Prior to the interview a lot of the forum users asked me to bring this up, but I opted to not burn bridges, and keep the focus on the promised upcoming formal trials.

It wasn’t too long after that when we heard from Dr. Naughton that they’d secured an additional $6m in funding for HSC from Huapont Life Sciences, to help fund the new studies, and later we announced their deal for commercialization of Histogen HSC in China.  All good news and forward progress.  As always, please bookmark the Histogen Hair Stimulating Complex project page to keep apprised of our updates.

JAK3 Inhibitors Cure Alopecia Areata, Totalis, Universalis

Yeah for real.  An actual cure.  And not the kind you read about in an article and when you reach the bottom, they passively mention that it may actually work but they’re not sure, and you’ll have to wait 15 years to find out.  This one actually works.  Today.

People who took the medication saw 100% restoration of all their hair within 16 weeks of starting.  So the question now with these JAK3 inhibitors is whether they’re going to be safe to take long term.  And what’s the lowest dose needed for results.

JAK3 Inhibitors Cure Alopecia Areata

On the plus side, people already take them in higher doses for other autoimmune conditions, so the safety profile is fairly well known.  But with Alopecia you’d have to take it forever to maintain the hair.  It falls out as soon as you stop.

So what about Androgenetic Alopecia (typical male and female pattern baldness) or thinning hair?  Aclaris and Dr. Angela Christiano have said that they’re considering a topical formulation to see how it may work with this non-autoimmune form of hair loss.  A lot of forum users are skeptical, and some outright laughing at the idea.  But they’ve dubbed the Alopecia one ATI-50001 and the thinning hair one ATI-50002 so please bookmark the project page to keep an eye on them.

Samumed’s Hair Loss Treatment Secret Revealed?

Without a doubt the most entertaining story we’ve done in 2016 centers around the Samumed hair loss treatment project.  I had an absolute ball writing this article after reading up on this company, which by the way is ALSO right here in San Diego (along with Histogen, and a few others, so please expect me to stalk them on a regular basis on your behalf).

Samumed Project Team

The article linked-to above explains it all, but needless to say this company is funded out the wazoo and that bodes will for the legitimacy of the technology they’re pushing, which spans not only hair loss treatment but the regeneration of organs throughout the body.  Sometimes I wish these companies were publicly traded so I could get in early…

You can bookmark the Samumed Hair Loss Treatment project page to keep an eye on our updates.

HairCell Hair Loss Treatment Project Skepticism

Finally, I took a rather skeptical look at another company called HairCell which purports to be developing a hair loss treatment.  For some reason my BS-O-Meter went off when I looked a little deeper into their company.  Specifically their Vimeo page full of strange, somewhat cheesy videos on what they claim to be developing.  Its ironically similar to Samumed in the sense that it is a technology intended to help all sorts of system-wide organs.

But like I said … something just struck me as disingenuous about it all.  As a result, they haven’t been added to the Pipeline page, but I will definitely make sure we update you with any leanings towards legitimacy coming from them.  I’ve been known to be wrong in the past…

Post Finasteride Syndrome

I had a couple pretty unpleasant encounters with some folks from the Post-Finasteride Syndrome world recently.  If you’re not aware of what that is, its basically a handful of websites with people who report having long-term side effects from Propecia.  As with most topics from politics to religion, moderate, rational, grounded thought quickly gives way to extremism.  , and in this case I see an abundance of speculation, paranoia, and fear that really dilutes the message for me.  In a bad way.  I wanted to listen, but I couldn’t go longer than 10 minutes without hearing that Propecia makes people “kill themselves”.  All sincere attempts to appeal to a more rational conversation were rejected, and I was labeled a slime bucket who “doesn’t care that people are dying”.  Simply because I still tell people to use Propecia on this site.

I should say very clearly that I do strongly believe that a certain percentage of guys have side effects on Propecia, and a relevant number of those have ongoing issues with both their hormones and sometimes neurotransmitters responsible for mood.  But what I care about is data.  Fortunately, Swoop sent the following study to me which was just recently published (July 2016).

Its the best kind of study in my opinion, because it is a meta-analysis of propecia side effects.   That means they analyzed all the data out there, as well as including speculative and subjective reports from discussion forums online.  I think you should check it out if you care about remaining rational on this topic:  Adverse Effects and Safety of 5-alpha Reductase Inhibitors (Finasteride, Dutasteride): A Systematic Review.

Propecia Side Effects – A Rational Look

It’s clear that there are some very strong opinions on Propecia side effects, and I know firsthand that medical science is sometimes incredibly wrong in its conclusions.  But for the time being, I need to stand by my opinion that:

First, every medication has severe side effects in some people.  Aspirin actually has “suicide” and “death” listed on its post-marketing side effects list.  Does that mean you’ll stop taking it when you get a fever of 104?  Second, Propecia is remarkably good at telling you whether it’s going to cause problems for you.  I don’t believe they happen “without you knowing” or that you’ll wake up one day forever impotent.  I believe severe side effects are very rare, and people who experience them should discontinue treatment or risk doing long term damage.

Lastly, its important to remember the absolutely devastating effect hair loss has on people.  There actually are people out there who may be suicidal if they don’t stop their hair loss.  And millions more who simply lose hope in life, and their future, because thinning hair destroys their self esteem and social status as well.  It’s disappointing to me that we can’t find a rational, middle ground on this issue.

Much to Come

So that’s it for now everyone.  As mentioned, I will be doing these either weekly or every 2 weeks, so if you lack the time or interest to read all the specific articles, you can always just read this one and get the overall scoop on what’s going on.  I’ll make sure to include some drama and other things which will ensure that you laugh, cry, and walk away from HairLossTalk wondering how the hell you ended up on a “hair loss newsletter list” that actually entertains you.

Check out the Subscribe page and you can enter your email (even if you’re already subscribed) then select the topics that are of interest to you.  There should be a new one there for “Editors Mashup” or “From the Horses Mouth”, or some other far-too-creative title for this thing I’m trying to do.  That’ll be this combo article which will come out frequently.

The post HairLossTalk Weekly Mashup | November 21 2016 appeared first on HairLossTalk.

First off – Happy Thanksgiving to all our USA friends.

Quick note regarding the S5 Cream Shipments that started going out a couple weeks ago.  I received a sample from the new manufacturer, and also a couple emails from customers, and I’m not satisfied with the consistency of the product.  Much too thick, and dries improperly as well.

We’ve had a conference call just this morning and figured out exactly what needs to be done.

If you get your shipment, my recommendation is just to toss it.  You can use it also to build a Dog House or repair your Deck if you like   I’m going to have them quickly adjust the formula though, and send everyone a reshipment here in the next couple weeks.  I take care of you guys and want this product to be the best it can be.

10 years ago, Dr. Lee’s Topical Spironolactone (which I used myself) was the gold standard.  It actually was a lot more “liquidy” and smooth than even the previous S5 Cream was.  We may just shoot for that if possible as well.  The goal is to get it to glide on smooth and clear, not clump in the hair at all (of course), and dry invisible.

If you see anyone flipping out on the forums because the new S5 Cream reminded them more of Gorilla Glue than a skin lotion – please link them to this post.  

Again this was a first run from a new manufacturing plant, so bear with them as they work out the kinks.  And apologies for the delay.  I am kind of playing middle-man here because so many HLT customers were sent their way.

The products you are receiving DO have all the active ingredients.  I’m just not satisfied with the consistency.

Obviously, no charge for the reshipment and new products.  If you know a thing or two about emulsifiers or solutions, you can probably play with it and maybe even use it.  Consider it your first shipment a bunch of free spiro.

Give it a week or two.  Going to see if they can ship the corrected formula in a couple days.   Shipping from overseas so it may take a bit …

If you have any questions you can email me or post in the comments below.

The post S5 Cream Reshipments Going Out Later This Week appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Test post for yoast redirect check.

The post Yoast Test appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Androgenetic Alopecia: An Update of Treatment Options.

Author information:
Kelly Y, Blanco A, Tosti A.

Abstract:

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is characterized by a non-scarring progressive miniaturization of the hair follicle in predisposed men and women with a pattern distribution. Although AGA is a very prevalent condition, approved therapeutic options are limited. This article discusses the current treatment alternatives including their efficacy, safety profile, and quality of evidence. Finasteride and minoxidil for male androgenetic alopecia and minoxidil for female androgenetic alopecia still are the therapeutic options with the highest level evidence. The role of antiandrogens for female patients, the importance of adjuvant therapies, as well as new drugs and procedures are also addressed.

The post A Review of Treatments for Androgenetic Alopecia appeared first on HairLossTalk.

And not just Alopecia Areata.   Potentially also a treatment for Androgenetic Alopecia (hormone-related thinning hair seen in both men and women).  Aclaris Therapeutics has acquired the rights to a potential treatment for Alopecia Areata (AA) – and like the other treatments they’ve been working on, this one will be based on Janus Kinase (JAK) inhibitors.

The name of the newly acquired company might sound familiar. It’s Vixen Pharmaceuticals, the startup founded by Dr. Angela Christiano of Columbia University to develop her own JAK inhibitor treatment. This means Aclaris now has the intellectual property rights for a total of three potential JAK3 inhibitor treatments, potentially for both Alopecia Areata and Androgenic Alopecia (male and female pattern baldness).

Aclaris: Three New Hair loss Treatments?

As you might remember, back in November 2015, Aclaris acquired the rights to two other potential AA treatments based on JAK3 inhibitors – one that was being developed by JAKPharm LLC, and another under development at Key Organics.  According to our Hair Loss Treatments Pipeline page, those two potential treatments – known as ATI-50001 and ATI-50002 – are still in the pre-clinical trial stage; one as an oral treatment and one as topical. That was the last we’d heard about either of these treatments.

Aclaris hasn’t added the Vixen JAK3 inhibitor treatment to its pipeline page yet, but it’s likely they will soon. Dr. Christiano’s treatment is reportedly in the very early stages of pre-clinical trials, and no one’s spoken much about it, so we don’t know exactly what it involves.

There’s been some speculation, though. Dr. Christiano has spoken in the past about the potential use of a highly concentrated dose of JAK inhibitors, sent deep into the hair follicle, to trigger the process of hair growth cycling.  This may mean that the Vixen treatment now being developed at Aclaris will involve a super-concentrated dose of JAK3 inhibitors, and/or perhaps an application technique that gets them deeper into the follicle than before.

What are JAK3 inhibitors?

JAK inhibitors interfere with the activity of one or more of the Janus kinase family of enzymes (JAK1, JAK2, JAK3 or TYK2), which are involved in a chemical signaling pathway known as the the JAK-STAT pathway. One of the effects of the JAK-STAT pathway is to pull “Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription” (STAT) proteins into hair follicles.

Under healthy conditions, STAT proteins would help protect hair follicles. But in people with Androgenic Alopecia, Alopecia Areata and related conditions, these proteins seem to trigger the immune system’s cytotoxic C lymphocyte cells to attack hair follicles themselves.

The idea of inhibiting the JAK-STAT signaling pathway to treat hair loss isn’t new. For years, researchers like Dr. Brett King have expressed optimism about the potential of JAK inhibitors to treat Alopecia Areata, as well as other disorders like Male Pattern Baldness (MPB).

JAK Inhibitors Effective for Alopecia Areata

But it was a team of researchers led by Dr. Angela M. Christiano at Columbia University who first demonstrated a conclusive link between the JAK-STAT pathway and Alopecia Areata. These researchers described the potential clinical efficacy of JAK inhibitors for Alopecia Areata patients in a 2014 Nature Medicine paper, followed by another paper on the specific mechanism by which JAK inhibition prevents cytotoxic T lymphocytes from attacking hair follicles.

In short, JAK3 inhibitors are well-researched, and there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that they may be able to prevent the body from attacking its own hair follicles. Look forward to some more definite results in the clinical trials that are sure to come soon.

The post Alopecia Areata Cure? Aclaris Therapeutics JAK3 Inhibitors. appeared first on HairLossTalk.

We’d like to introduce to you Abby Andrew – a charming 22 year old who has tackled her Alopecia Areata since childhood.  She has been kind enough to let us “feature” her in the HairLossTalk Newsletter as she continues to put out great video content.  She has a YouTube Channel (which you should subscribe to) where she talks about living with Alopecia, and reviews numerous solutions for Alopecia Areata sufferers, including wigs.

This video is from back in September but we selected it along with Abby as a good introduction to who she is, and what she’s all about.  We have transcribed the text from the video below as well.  If you know anyone with Alopecia Areata or someone who is struggling with coping, we hope you’ll point them to her channel for support and advice.

Abby Andrew:  Alopecia Awareness Month

Hey guys.  Today i wanted to make a quick video of Alopecia Awareness Month, which is September, in case you didn’t know that.  I always thought the first video I made without a wig at all would be scary.  I thought that I’d have to force myself to do it.  I thought I’d be really nervous.  I’m nervous in a meta way, if that makes sense, but at the same time I don’t think I’m going to be nervous to post this.  I’m feeling oddly confident today which is nice.

Having Confidence with Alopecia

I don’t always feel this confident, but even on most days lately I’ve just been feeling more and more confident about talking about Alopecia, changing wigs, so much more in just the past couple months than I have in my whole life.  Which is such a great feeling.  Obviously you guys know I have a YouTube Channel about Alopecia so I always talk about it.  But less often do I actually put myself out there without a wig. So this can be a little bit new for me. But again, its kind of weird how today making this video doesn’t feel as scary as I thought my first video without a wig at all, would feel.

So this is what my hair looks like naturally:

This is Alopecia Areata

This is Alopecia.  And in case you don’t know much about Alopecia there are three types.  I think this is kind of a misconception some people have.  That if you have Alopecia, you have no hair at all.  Which for some people is true.  That’s actually a type of Alopecia called Alopecia Universalis.  That means you have no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, and nothing on your head at all.

What is Alopecia Areata?

But I have a type of Alopecia called Alopecia Areata, which means that you only have patches missing.  Which can range from a small little patch which you can cover easily, to something like this, where most of its missing, but you still have patches of hair.

So as you can see most of my hair is missing.  As well as obviously I’m wearing fake lashes, but most of my lashes are missing.  Some are there.  Most of the bottom lashes.  And some of my eyebrows.  My eyebrows have actually been doing well lately, which is cool.  They’ve been fuller than they’ve been in a long time.  But obviously I’m still wearing brow stuff on top of them as well.  So this is what my natural hair looks like.

Alopecia Awareness Month

I wanted to do a really quick video in honor of Alopecia Awareness Month.  And kind of just name a couple misconceptions that some people have if you aren’t familiar with Alopecia.  For one thing, there’s not really a known cause for Alopecia, which causes the most amount of stress I think for people with Alopecia.  Because there also is no known cure.  And usually what medical professionals will attribute it to is stress.  Which could mean anything.  It could mean mental stress.  It could mean stress in your life – subconscious or conscious stress, so that doesn’t really answer anything.

What’s it like having Alopecia Areata?

Mind you, I got Alopecia when I was like two.  So how stressed out can a two-year-old be?  So it is very frustrating to not really know a cause, and to not really know a cure.  It’s not genetic.  Sometimes it’s genetic.  Certain types are.  But noone in my family has Alopecia so its very random, and that’s what can cause a lot of people stress.

Its also very unpredictable. And that’s another misconception.  Some people believe that if you get Alopecia your hair can never grow back. And it actually can.  Especially if you have Areata, it fluctuates all the time, which is also frustrating.  Because 2 years ago for example I had almost full eyelashes, and now I really don’t.  But at the same time when I had full eyelashes, I had less brows and now I have fuller brows and less eyelashes.  So its just very random and all over the place.  It doesn’t really make any logical sense.

Coping with Alopecia Areata – Give Yourself Time

Which is why over the last couple of years I’ve been slowly taking the approach of – trying to let go.  Trying to stop feeling like I want to control it, because I can’t control it.  And I think that once someone with alopecia accepts that you can’t control your hair loss, I think it’s the most freeing thing, because you don’t have control over your hair falling out, but you do have control over how much you’re going to let it impact you.  It doesn’t have to ruin your life.

It doesn’t have to ruin your life.

That’s something I always tell people.  That Alopecia will impact you as much as you let it.  You can be devastated, and of course, be sad for a little while if you feel you need to do that to cope, but don’t get stuck in that place.  Just let yourself slowly adjust.  If you want to – I think its really powerful if you can go without a wig entirely.  Wigs are totally fun and I think they’re beautiful.  Obviously I wear them all the time. But if you can go without a wig, I think that’s such a cool thing. But if you’re not ready to do that, then just think about how much fun you could have with wigs.

Lately I’ve been changing my wigs almost every day, going to class.  In the past when I would change a wig and go to class, I would be so nervous.  My heart would be racing on the way just imagining people asking me questions.  Now I do it, and I almost think its funny when people are like “Wait … is that the same person?”

Now I can laugh at it, whereas in the past I used to be nervous.  Gaining this level of confidence took time.  But you have to be patient with yourself, and give yourself time.  Yeah maybe it won’t be easy to just walk out the door without a wig, or even a different wig right away.  But just give yourself time to adjust and eventually your confidence will just keep growing, the more you challenge yourself.

In Honor of Alopecia Awareness Month

I wanted to keep this video really really short and make it in honor of Alopecia Awareness Month.  Because its just an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up.  September is already half over and I kept putting this off.  I’m kind of glad I kept putting it off because if I made it earlier in the month I probably would’ve just done like a very basic video, and I think it’s more powerful to do it without a wig at all.  Because I’m telling you guys what Alopecia is, but if I’m wearing a wig, you can’t actually see the symptoms.  And these are the symptoms.

The hair I do have is very thin, and it’s short just because I shaved my head about 2 months ago, but the hair that I do have actually grows very consistently, which can be annoying in a way, because obviously no matter how much this grows, it’s not going to be enough to cover my whole head and my bald spots.  So at the same time I still have to keep this trimmed, whereas on the rest of my head it doesn’t grow.  So its really weird, but its kind of funny in a way.

Difficulty Connecting with Others who have Alopecia

Something else I wanted to talk about in this video is how – the weirdest thing in Alopecia is that it’s very hard to connect with people in real life who have Alopecia.  Because first of all its a very rare condition.  I think that about 0.01% of the population or something really small like that has Alopecia.

So for one thing – you may not even encounter people with Alopecia in your day to day life – you’re unlikely to.  And at the same time, something that kind of puzzles me is that – even if you do encounter someone with Alopecia, you may not even realize it at times.  Because a lot of people with Alopecia work so hard to cover it.  They get nice wigs, and head scarves.

So even if you encounter someone with Alopecia, sometimes you may not even be able to tell they have hair loss, because they do wear wigs.

Which is good that we have these options to wear wigs.  But its also kind of sad because you miss that opportunity connect with the person on something that’s hard to connect with people on.

And another thing – an experience that I actually had last night – I was at a bar in my town with a couple friends, and there was this girl standing right next to me with a completely bald head.  And I spent like 10 minutes considering – should I say something to her?  I was wearing a wig so maybe she didn’t know that I had hair loss, but I just kept looking at her thinking I should ask her if she has Alopecia and talk to her about it.  Because clearly she had more confidence with her hair loss than I did, and I thought that was really bad-ass.

But at the same time I was almost nervous to ask her if she had Alopecia because I was nervous she would say “Oh no, I have cancer” and I wouldn’t know how to react to that.  Which again, I don’t know why I got so nervous, if that even was the case because … obviously if she doesn’t wear a wig she must be used to answering people’s questions.  But at the same time, I know from personal experience how annoying and invasive questions can feel sometimes.  I didn’t want to put her in that position.

I didn’t want to put her in that position…

Talking to Someone Who Has Alopecia

Thats the other reason it’s difficult to connect with people in real life with Alopecia.  Because when you see a person, you don’t know where they’re at.  I never want to call somebody out for having Alopecia if they’re not ready to talk about it.  And again… just from looking at her, she seemed like she had more confidence than I have because she wasn’t wearing wigs at all, and that’s something that I’m still nervous about doing.  But I still didn’t want to put her in an uncomfortable position.

So those are just my thoughts on Alopecia in general that I wanted to include in this video for Alopecia Awareness Month.  Thank you guys so much for watching this video.  I hope that you found it informative if you didn’t know much about Alopecia before.  And if you do have Alopecia, I hope that you enjoyed this as far as connecting with someone who can share similar experiences.

And if you follow my channel regularly, then you know I make a lot of videos talking about Alopecia.  But again, this is my first one that I’ve actually made not wearing a wig at all.  So its … I don’t know … exciting.  I’m more excited to post this than I am nervous.  Which is a really cool feeling that I can be excited to share my side of the story now, instead of being terrified.

I’ll never forget when I used to be so insecure about it that I could not say the word Alopecia without tearing up.  And now I’m tearing up just slightly because I’m getting sentimental about just how far I’ve come.  And it makes me proud I guess.  Not even proud.  I just feel so free.

I used to be so insecure about it that I couldn’t say the word Alopecia without tearing up.

And I want anyone else out there who’s still afraid to talk about Alopecia, I want you to know that you can become confident about it, like I have.  And it’s taken me so much time.  And that I’m making a video soon just telling you just how much time it’s taken me to get here, and what steps I took.

For now I just want you to have faith and know that you’re not alone, and that you can still have an awesome life with Alopecia.  And it doesn’t have to hold you back.  So that’s basically what I wanted to say in this video.

Subscribe if you want to watch more videos about me – I hope you guys enjoyed.  I will see you in the next video.

The post 22 Year Old Alopecia Areata Spokeswoman: Abby Andrew appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Follica is a company that has been working on a new hair loss treatment technology for nearly 10 years.   The updates have been few and far between, but with a recent site redesign, and some rumblings coming from behind the curtain, interest has been picking up as of late.

So we added them to our Hair Loss Research Pipeline, and even gave them a dedicated page which you should bookmark for ongoing updates.

Their entire inspiration for this new treatment centers around some well-known data showing that new follicles will develop after skin wounding has occurred.  They’ve conducted 3 studies which confirmed these findings using hair counts, and also established that the procedure was safe when performed properly. The addition of a hair growth stimulant like Minoxidil was hypothesized to enhance the results.

HairLossTalk got word that they would be presenting this weekend at the American Academy of Dermatology’s 2017 Annual Meeting, and people on the forum got all hyped up to see what they may be sharing with the industry.

In attendance were Dr. Ken Washenik, Dr. George Cotsarelis, Dr. R. Rox Anderson, and the CEO of Follica, Jason Bhardwaj.

It’s clear from the response of others that the presentation was exciting to those who saw it, but unfortunately nobody from the outside world (including HairLossTalk.com) were allowed in.

In fact, the following Tweet from Follica may be the most exciting part of this entire article:

You probably want to know what that means.

We do too.  Even after the interview

HairLossTalk Connects with CEO of Follica

We immediately got in contact with the CEO of Follica, Jason Bhardwaj to see if one of our users could attend the presentation and gather new information.

The company had previously set forth a timeline of trials in 2016, data updates in 2017, and potential commercial availability for their Wounding + Stem Cells + Topical Treatment regimen in 2018.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, meetings like these are “closed” to the public for legal and commercial reasons, and we were unable to get a pass to have any of our users attend.   Fortunately Mr. Bhardwaj was kind enough to make himself available for an interview after the presentation, and we set about gathering questions from our users for that purpose.

Introducing @DoctorHouse

A long time forum member and unbelievably helpful participant on the HairLossTalk.com forums known as @DoctorHouse offered to attend the AAD meeting and talk with Bhardwaj on our behalf.

After the meeting there was a bit of good-hearted frustration, as our questions were likely far too specific, and the answers … well … the opposite.  

But this is to expected for a company that is in the throes of disrupting the hair loss treatment industry.  

A Slightly Disappointing Payload:

First bit of bad news.  We weren’t granted permission to record the conversation, so any expounding that occurred was lost into the ether, but being familiar with the project, the vast majority of what was shared could already be found on their website.

Additionally, a conversation with one of the science officers likely would’ve been more appropriate for the types of questions we asked, but even then, its possible they wouldn’t have been able to share much information at this stage either.

The impression given was that they are still in the early stages of development, and are being careful to properly work within the FDA’s guidelines for everything from “making claims”, to procedures.

The primary purpose of the presentation was to introduce the technology to their peers and get feedback from them.  There was no indication that the presentation included any breakthroughs or new data, though this very well could have been the case.

Nevertheless, here are the questions asked, and the general impressions @DoctorHouse got from the answers:

Who is this treatment primarily intended for?

As far as candidates, they are focusing on males who have Androgenic Alopecia. There will be an age group but he did not state it.

There was no indication of which Norwood status would be the best candidate over others, and he was unable to say who would be considered a “bad candidate”.

The procedure still involves a dermatologist visit where careful “wounding” of the scalp will occur likely with a medical device, in the areas you wish to treat.

They are working to ensure that the device does not create scar tissue or incur any permanent damage, as this would of course nullify the entire treatment.

He did mention that this portion of the process will include the addition of some chemical compounds, but he was not able to disclose what they will be.  It is assumed at this time that it may be Minoxidil or other growth stimulating chemical.

They are attempting to make sure the patient will not have to shave their head when it is performed, and he would not confirm whether existing hair would be damaged but said that they are trying to find the best modality so this could be avoided.

After the procedure, the patient will be sent home with a similar device for at-home treatment.  No specifics were provided regarding this at home treatment, and we were directed back to the website for further (existing) information.

He did state that multiple office treatments may be required, but he could not commit nor confirm this, and they are hoping it won’t be a lifetime process but again no confirmation on that either.

Questions regarding the potential estimated cost of the procedure would not be disclosed.

Current Status of Research and Commercial Availability?

Answer given was unknown, and depends upon FDA approval.

Any Option for only an At-Home Regimen?

All treatments must include dermatologist office visits, and it is likely you will need multiple ones.

Will Hair Grow over Transplanted Scars?

Could not answer.  Does not know.

Dr. Ken Washenik of Follica Presenting

Treatment Over Existing Transplanted Grafts?

Mr. Bhardwaj stated that he does not see any reason why it wouldn’t work for patients who have undergone a hair transplant and have transplanted grafts in the areas they wish to treat.  But he followed up by saying that the study will not involve those types of patients, so this is an unknown.

Which Countries Will the Treatment Be Available?

The intention is to make it available in other countries than the USA, but right now they are focusing on FDA approval.

Expected Cost?

Can not disclose at this time.

Possibly Replace a Finasteride / Minoxidil Regimen?

Treatment modality not the same as Minoxidil or Finasteride, so they would most likely not discourage people from stopping their current treatments as this would just be another angle to treat hair loss and maybe give a synergistic positive result with the other treatments.  In other words, treating hair loss from multiple angles is always a good thing.

But of course, some may want to try this method as their first-line treatment.

The Follica Presenting Team

In Conclusion

Don’t be too disappointed.

We often see situations like this when a new product is under development.  If anything its usually a sign of legitimacy, whereas those smaller companies who blather at the mouth about their product with no concern for protocols, intellectual property rights, or FDA guidelines tend to be the ones that never pan out.

The good news is that HairLossTalk.com now has open communication with the company, and we will keep you informed of anything new as it is made available.  The fact that they had quite a spotlight at the meeting says something in itself, so keep your hopes high.

The post Follica Presents at the AAD 2017 Annual Meeting appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Follica has been around since 2006 – wow, has it been ten years already? – and they haven’t exactly kept HairLossTalk users on the edge of their seats with ongoing updates.  Quite a few waiting in the wings for new hair loss treatments have written off Follica years back due to a lack of forward-progress and very little information from the company.

But now they’re back.  Sort of.  And we’ve got a bit more information on this new treatment which incorporates a form of dermarolling into the mix…

Dermarolling – As Bad as it Looks?

If you’re not familiar with dermarolling, you probably missed the hip new fad that struck our forums in 2015-16 where guys were literally obliterating their scalp skin until bloody, in hopes that the healing process would cause cells to generate new follicles.

Note: Old school dermarolling. NOT Follicas new treatment!

We actually ended up locking most of the discussions on the topic after seeing entire threads full of pictures of bloody scalps.

Nevertheless, dermarolling is a “thing” and it’s got some solid science behind it.  As per Dr. George Cotsarelis, the lead scientist on the project:

“When cells move in to close a wound, they are trying to make a decision: Should I make epidermis or should I make a hair? There is a window of opportunity in which we can push them to make hair.”

Leave it to the Pros, Please

The problem is that it’s not being done by professionals.  So “skin disruption” or “wounding” seems to be part of Follica’s new treatment currently in research.  Along with it, they plan to use Minoxidil to assist in the process.  They applied for a series of patents, got some of them approved in 2015, and continued to work on their treatment.

New Follica Website:  Forward Progress?

Then, this past October, Follica suddenly launched a complete redesign of its website, seemingly out of nowhere. The new site has cool graphics, and optimistic quotes from researchers.

It also has the surprising announcement that Follica is aiming for a 2018 launch of their new hair loss treatment – which, they’ve announced for the first time, will now involve stem cell transplantation.

What does this update really tell us? Does it hint at some completely new technique, or an improvement on existing technologies? What questions remain to be answered?

Let’s separate the facts from the speculation, and find out what we can really expect from Follica between now and 2018.

In Office, and At Home

Follica’s website immediately makes one thing clear: this new treatment is intended not just to revive damaged follicles, but to use epithelial stem cells to generate brand-new healthy follicles – an approach known as hair follicle neogenesis.

The fundamental idea behind Follica’s approach seems to be the same as it’s always been: a skin disruption procedure, followed by some sort of topical compound.

The main new development seem to be that:

• The treatment includes stem cell follicle neogenesis and…
• There’s an at-home component

The treatment will start with an in-office procedure, which will use:

“A proprietary device to disrupt the skin” – i.e., dermarolling – then transplant artificially grown stem cells to create new hair follicles in the scalp. Users will then follow up with an at-home treatment system that will “deliver a range of compounds directly to the scalp.”

Follica may be trying to up the ante on Shiseido and RepliCel, who formed a partnership earlier this year, announcing their own 2018 target for a follicle neogenesis technique, known as RCH-01, an in-office procedure not designed for home use.

Follica’s website blasts their “at-home treatment” message in huge text, making it clear that they know who they’re up against.

Timelines and Team

The timeline also seems pretty consistent with what Follica has said in the past.

Back in April 2016 – months before this big website re-launch – Follica announced a project timeline in which they’d launch a registration study sometime in the second half of 2016, seek FDA clearance for their treatment by 2017, and aim for a commercial release as early as 2018. According to the new site, they’re still shooting for that goal.

Follica’s leadership team also contains a lot of familiar names – especially Dr. George Cotsarelis and Dr. R. Rox Anderson, the company’s co-founders.

While they’ve added some new medical advisers, it’s clear that the core of the company will remain based around the same researchers who launched it.

What’s Unclear

The big question right now is which mystery chemicals this at-home system will use. The most likely candidate would be Follica’s old standby Minoxidil, combined with some new proprietary compound.

Understandably, Follica is guarding this information closely – they haven’t released so much as a single hint about which chemicals the daily applicator will contain.

If Follica’s previous patent applications are any indication, the compound might also contain Fibroblast Growth actor 9 (FGF9), which Dr. Costarelis and his team have expressed interest in before.

If the applicator does turn out to use Minoxidil, that could mean users would be stuck using their re-application devices several times a week for the rest of their lives. Now that companies like Histogen and Replicel are promising once-and-for-all stem cell treatments, a lifetime commitment to Minoxidil wouldn’t exactly be a huge selling point for Follica.

Stem Cells?  There’s an App for That

Another interesting feature is a companion smartphone app, which will help users personalize their at-home treatments around their needs and lifestyles, automatically measure dosage amounts, and automatically re-order supplies for home delivery when necessary.

This certainly isn’t a core part of the treatment, but it’s pretty unique in this field. It may turn out to be a trendsetting idea.

Another alternate possibility is that the at-home treatment might be just one of several options for sustaining growth from the regenerated follicles.

Depending on how strongly the new follicles grow, it might be possible to take Finasteride or Dutasteride, to control levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) well enough that the Follica device might not be necessary. This is all just speculation at this point, but it’s still interesting to think about.

“Follica has an exclusive, worldwide license from the University of Pennsylvania to develop and commercialize this potentially breakthrough technology.”

If it turns out to be as big of a breakthrough as they’re saying, it could be a significant competitor for companies like Histogen and RepliCel as 2018 approaches. It’ll be exciting to find out.

The post Follica’s New Hair Loss Treatment Might Hurt appeared first on HairLossTalk.

3D-printed hair might sound like a fringe approach to hair loss treatment – but it may not stay that way for long. In September 2016, L’Oreal and French bioprinting company Poietis partnered to develop laser-printed human hair follicles.

You read that right: we’re not talking about 3D-printed hairpieces, or some kind of synthetic hair. We’re talking about healthy hair follicles composed of living human cells, which can be transplanted directly into the scalp.

This offers an exciting opportunity for hair loss treatments, as the conventional methods for tissue engineering are limited and still being studied to determine how best to utilize this science.

Here’s how this technology is different from anything else on the market right now – and how it may prompt some new approaches to neogenic follicle transplants.

3D Printed Synthetic Hair

A few different groups are working on various kinds of 3D-printed hair “solutions.” An Italian company called Cesare Ragazzi Laboratories is developing what they call the CNC hair system, in which an artificial “second scalp” is stuck to the patient’s head, and a technician sews in thousands of artificial 3D-printed hairs.

Patients must visit a special salon once per month to keep their artificial hair in shape and looking healthy. Aside from this, these systems seem to allow a person to behave as they naturally would with their own hair, in terms of swimming, exercising and the like.

Keep in mind, this amounts to wearing a wig that’s sewn to the scalp.

Cilllia Synthetic 3D Printed Hairs

Meanwhile, a team at MIT is 3D-printing hair-like fibers with a diameter of 50 micrometers – about the average thickness of human hair – and though they haven’t announced any plans to use this technology in human hairpieces, that’s clearly an application with potential.

The project is known as Cilllia, and is inspiring many researchers to explore other ways of applying the power of 3D-printed strands, such as using these strong fibers to make a strong mechanical adhesive.

Polylactide Synthetic Hair

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have also used 3D printing to produce hair-like structures. In this particular study, the researchers used a 3D printer that was purchased off the shelf rather than a specially designed printer. The researchers used a polylactide (PLA).

Once this glob of PLA is placed inside the printer, the printer head then works to create the hair. It’s a fairly slow, complex process, taking around 25 minutes to produce hair that covers a surface of 10 square millimeters. They also found that they can use various filaments to change the color of the strands, as seen below:

But that’s all artificial “hair,” composed of inorganic material. In other words, the best you’re going to get with any of it is a new-and-improved hairpiece.

This is what L’Oreal wants to correct, as everyone deserves the chance to have real hair, rather than synthetic fibers that can irritate the skin. The technology coming from Poietis is a whole different story, and one that could change the world of hair care for good!

3D Bioprinting Hair Follicles

Nobody’s ever succeeded in 3D printing living human hair follicles.

But the field of bioprinting has advanced by leaps and bounds since the Japanese professor Makoto Nakamura invented the first bioprinter in 2008. By December 2010, the company Organovo had created the first bioprinted blood vessels, using cells cultured from a human donor. Since then, other companies have bioprinted skin, muscle, and other types of tissue – and researchers keep making new advances every year.

Most bioprinting systems work by pushing cellular material onto a growth medium through a nozzle – a technique that’s very versatile, but puts a lot of stress on living matter.

Since hair follicles include some of the most sensitive and complex cellular structures in the human body, they tend to die quickly – or not survive at all – when printed with the nozzle method, as this is simply too invasive for such a delicate procedure.

Bioprinting nozzle from: http://3dprint 1

Poietis may have gotten around this problem by using a different technique.

Instead of pushing cellular material through a nozzle, their system creates 10,000 “micro-droplets” of cellular matter per second.

It then uses pulsing microscopic lasers to target the exact spot in the growth medium where each micro-droplet should go:

This technique minimizes damage to the cellular tissue – and Poietis has already had success 3D-printing human skin with lasers and micro-droplets. They’ve announced their plans to tackle hair follicles next.

L’Oreal Partnership with Organovo

L’Oreal isn’t putting all their eggs in one basket with Poietis. In May 2015, they announced a partnership with Organovo – the company that bioprinted the first 3D-printed human blood vessels back in 2010 – to 3D-print human skin tissue for “development and research.”

Organovo hasn’t announced any plans to 3D-print human hair follicles yet – but they’ve already had success 3D-printing human kidney tissue and liver cells. If their work on 3D-printed skin cells goes well, L’Oreal will clearly see the implications for hair follicle printing, too. Depending on the nature of L’Oreal’s agreement with Poietis, they may even be able to get the two companies to collaborate.

This could result in this technology being seen by the public sooner than expected.

As Alopecia UK spokeswoman Amy Johnson says, “It’s still very early days to be getting excited about what this potentially could mean for those with medical hair loss.”

All the same, it’s interesting to see a new and unique approach to neogenic follicles. Even if it takes a while for this research to have clinical applications, more knowledge and research in the field are always good news.

Bioengineering Hair Follicles

The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) were able to engineer a hair follicle model through combining two hair cells: the dermal papilla cell and keratinocytes. The hopes with this technology were to utilize this model to determine new hair loss treatments for men and for thinning hair in women.

In fact, the company was able to transplant this technology into mice. They discovered that the transplants were able to grow, resulting in natural-looking hair structures. This showcases that if enough time was spent on developing this, it could potentially turn into an option for humans suffering from baldness.

Challenges of Bioengineering Hair Follicles

There are numerous challenges facing L’Oreal and Poietis before they arrive at their ultimate goal of being able to implant these bioengineered hair follicles into humans.

For one, these duplicated hair follicles would need to produce hair in the same manner as the natural hair follicle. This will mean numerous studies must take place to determine if this can be achieved.

In addition, scientists must determine how to ensure that these duplicated cells are going to continue to cycle once these follicles are implanted.

Another huge issue to overcome is finding cells that share the same genetic code in extensively bald individuals. Thus, it could make it nearly impossible for these hair follicles to generate to produce more hair. It is a learning process and researchers are already on the right track to making this a reality.

Why Synthetic Hair is Not Good Enough

Many people believe that synthetic hair methods, such as those being used with the CNC hair system, are perfectly fine for humans.

However, synthetic hair is never going to look like real hair.  Why is this?  Synthetic hair is still a polymer, like a human hair.  However, synthetic hair also utilizes a monofilament to provide the look of real hair.

In the end, while the newer technologies are showing hair that feels very life-like and moves in a natural way, it is still not real. The number of chemicals that go into making synthetic hair are complex, according to Yale National Initiative, but it is this chemical process that makes these hairs strong and more life-like.

3D printing these hair-like fibers is making the process much faster when compared to the chemical basis for the composition of synthetic hair. However, the 3D printer is working to put layers of plastic or metal on top of each other to make the strand.

Thus, there are still chemicals in these 3D printed versions of hair.

Health Concerns

It is important to note that synthetic hairs, whether they’re worn in a wig fashion or weaved into an intricate scalp piece glued to the skull, can cause health issues for some people.

Those who are overly sensitive to numerous components will find they are at an increased risk of experiencing an allergic reaction. For example, there have been reports of headaches, especially when these hairs are sewn into the scalp.

There have also been those who experience severe itching of the scalp, often resulting in some sort of scalp infection. This is often due to the polymers that are used in development of these fibers.

Fragility and Non-Permanence

According to a report from Consumer Reports, synthetic hairs can cause several issues. For those who utilize synthetic hairs as extensions for their thinning hair, they may find that this makes the problem worse.

As documented in the report, it is not uncommon for the thinning hair to break off or fall out completely, making a problem even worse. There have been reports of those who utilize synthetic hairs for extension purposes to have bald spots where this synthetic hair causes natural hairs to fall out.

And in most cases, this hair is not going to grow back, making a person bald prematurely.

It is for these reasons that L’Oreal and Poietis are teaming to use the latest technology to find an alternative method that will be better for all involved.

How L’Oreal Will Use This Technology

The technology that L’Oreal and Poeitis are working with is still a few years away from being perfect.

The director at L’Oreal’s Research and Innovation division, Jose Cotovio stated:

“If we manage to bio-print a hair follicle, we will enhance our knowledge of both hair biology and some of the masters of hair growth and loss”

The director added that once these hair follicles were successfully created, they would be used for testing new L’Oreal products.

Initially, L’Oreal hopes to use this technology as a way to test products that could help with hair loss naturally.

They hope that by determining what products could work in slowing down or stopping hair loss altogether, it could change the market for the better. The ultimate goal however, is to take these digitally designed hair follicles and implant them into those who are losing hair or who have lost all their hair.

Commercial Availability

The possibility of this occurring could be several years away.

The process would have to be approved by the FDA, and would more than likely be released in Europe first before coming to the United States. Many people who are following this technology and those researchers who are involved in similar studies believe the world is around three years away from this type of technology becoming available to the average consumer.

Amy Johnson, spokeswoman for Alopecia UK, a charity that is all about hair loss, stated:

“At this point it is unclear as to whether this technology could benefit those with all types of hair loss. Also, if this new technology did lead to a treatment option, given the high costs of existing hair transplant procedures, how many people would be able to realistically afford any new technological advances that may become available?”

These fears and cautions are sentiments that are echoing throughout the public. The public will have to wait and see how it goes. The technology is astounding and it could change the future of hair loss and how to treat it.

Although we are still years away from this becoming mainstream, the possible implications of this technology for those who are losing their hair or have gone completely bald are dramatic. This could put an end to the use of wigs and painful synthetic hair implementation sessions for good.

The post Will 3D Printed Hair Cure Hair Loss? appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Real-time updates from the conference including interviews, presentations, and video updates.  Please bookmark this page as it will be frequently updated.

It’s 2017 and a little over a year has passed since the 2015 World Hair Congress in Miami. With the year already flying through March, October will soon be here with another major and potentially exciting congress; World Congress for Hair Research (WCHR) in Kyoto Japan.

This year marks the 10th annual congress and will be taking place at the Kyoto International Conference Center from Tuesday, October 31st until Friday, November 3rd 2017.

Organizing teams include the The Society for Hair Science Research (SHSR) and The Japan Society of Clinical Hair Restoration (JSCHR).

Visiting Old.  Find New.

While the 2015 theme was ‘Reflect, Rejuvenate, and REGENERATE’ this year the congress is focusing on ‘Visiting old, find new.’ This reflects on Japan hosting the WCHR for a third time as well as hosting the Third Intercontinental Meeting of Hair Research Societies in Tokyo.

Like last time, HairLossTalk is happy to announce that our forum member ‘Hellouser’ has once again volunteered to attend and report on the congress with news, presentations, scientific posters and of course interviews with leading researchers and scientists from regenerative medicine companies.

He will be bringing an assistant to help with the media production and processing of the vast amounts of information presented.

Interviews Presentations and Videos

With our last initiative we were able to capture all presentations relating to the reversal of hair loss on topics such as stem cells, wounding, alopecia (areata, totalis, universalis, androgenic), morphogenesis, neogenesis, tissue engineering, clinical trials and much more.

This year all video information will be housed on HairLossTalk’s YouTube Channel, so make sure you’re subscribed then bookmark the 2017 Congress Video Playlist page.

GoFundMe: Send Hellouser to the Conference

In 2015 we held a GoFundMe for Hellouser and had outstanding support from the community.   You can see the donation page here:  GoFundMe Campaign Page.  This years conference is in Japan so your help is very much needed!  With Hellouser volunteering to go (and use his vacation days to cover the event), HairLossTalk has decided to kick off the fundraising initiative as was done for Miami.

Funds can be donated to Hellouser via the new GoFundMe at the following link:

https://www.gofundme.com/hair-congress-2017

As we’ve started the fundraising quite early in the year, if we reach the amount needed, any extra will go towards sending a second person to help with the organization and collection of information to be presented here on HairLossTalk.com.

This will allow us to get all presentations.   Last year Hellouser could only cover one at a time, so two people will be more effective and hopefully allow us to get some video content as well.  We’ll again be focusing on interviews with researchers and company representatives from the industry with what should be some exciting news for everyone as we’re on the cusp of having some significant treatments available.

GoFundMe Proceeds Breakdown:

Proceeds will be used to cover travel, lodging and attendance fee for the congress itself. In total, it is expected that funds required will need to be roughly $5,000 CAD. Flights from Canada to Japan (round trip) is expected to cost roughly $1,500 + tax, approximately $1,000 CAD for entrance (2015 WCHR fee’s were $850 USD, so a little over $1,100 CAD) and some kind of hotel for about 6 or so days necessary at $300 CAD and finally $300 for travel between Tokyo and Kyoto (train ride).

Traveling to Japan can be incredibly exhausting with direct flights from Toronto to Tokyo lasting 13 hours alone or up to 34 hours with stop overs on cheaper flights.  Include travel and wait times to the airport, getting to the train station in Tokyo, train ride to Kyoto (bus is not feasible as this would be an overnight ride) and of course getting to the hotel in Kyoto.

2017 Hair Congress Conference in Japan

Each year the membership of participating “hair societies” increases.  This will bring the world’s top biologists, tissue engineers, dermatologists, scientists, researchers and hair transplant surgeons.

The program this year will include keynote lectures, scientific posters, clinical workshops, seminars and much more. Coverage of the activities would be no different from the congress in Miami. Presentations are already filling the program schedule which can be found at the following link:

https://www.congre.co.jp/wchr2017/data/program_at_a_glance2.pdf

As we approach the date of the congress a comprehensive list of presentation speakers will be announced. We expect to see top researchers as we did in 2015 which included:

• Dr. Gerd Lindner and Dr. Beren Atac from University of Berlin
• Dr. George Cotsarelis from University of Pennsylvania and Follica
• Dr. Takashi Tsuji from Riken and Tokyo University of Science
• Dr. Angela Christiano from Columbia University and Rapunzel
• Dr. Claire Higgins from Imperial College London and Hairclone
• Dr. Gail Naughton from Histogen
• Dr. Ken Washenik from Kerastem
• Dr. Yusuf Yazici from Samumed
• Lee Buckler and Dr. Rolf Hoffmann from Replicel

This year is a particularly interesting congress as it’s taking place in Japan, home to Replicel’s clinical trials in cooperation with Shiseido which may see a commercial release in 2018 (assuming things go well and without delays of course) as well as home to Dr. Takashi Tsuji with his work with Riken pushing for a full commercial release as early as 2020 (Japan only though). While being so close to these dates and with the native work being done in Japan, this presents a particularly exciting congress.

Furthermore, as we near the end of the year, major players such as Follica, Samumed, Histogen and Kythera are all expected to have commercially available treatments in the near future if not (hopefully) not long after the 2017 congress.

With so many angles at tackling hair loss being so close to release after waiting more than 20 years of a viable treatment since Merck’s Finasteride release (Propecia), it is especially an exciting time to see what announcements will be made this year as well as any other potential discoveries.

All new treatments are expected to have minimal to no side effects, which will be a welcome addition considering the horrible sexual side effects some men have encountered due to altering their dihydrotestosterone levels.

Schedule of Events and Presentations

Wednesday November 1

• Session 1:  Stem Cells and the Niche
• Session 3:  Alopecia Areata Research
• Session 5:   Hair Transplantation: Visiting Old, Learn new
• Luncheon Seminar 1:  George Cotsarelis, Mike Philpott
• Luncheon Seminar 2:  Luis Garza, Cheri Chu, Luisa Collins
• Keynote Lecture 1:  Emi K. Nishimura, Jeffrey Biernaski
• Session 2:  Androgenetic Alopecia
• Session 4:  Hair Follicle Morphology and Cosmetology
• Session 6:  Hair Transplantation
• Afternoon Seminar:  Ralf Paus, Akio Sato
• Sponsored Seminar:  Wig Service in Japan
• Opening Ceremony
• Special Lecture:  Rieko Ohara
• Welcome Reception:  Annex Hall

Thursday November 2

• Morning Seminar:  Ralf Trueb, Jennifer Marsh, Mike Davis
• Session 7:  Scarring Alopecia
• Session 9:  Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering
• Session 12:  Hair Disease and Endocrinology
• Keynote Lecture 2:  Oh-Sang Kwon
• Luncheon Seminar 3:  Shiseido – Claire Higgins, Jiro Kishimoto
• Luncheon Seminar 4:  Taisho Pharmaceutical
• Plenary Session 2:  Research
• Session 8:  Hair Anti-Aging
• Session 11:  New Horizon of Hair Disease and Research (Aderans)
• Session 14:  Alopecia Areata (Clinical)
• Gala Dinner

Friday November 3

• Morning Seminar:  Kao Corporation – Michael Rendl, Ko-ei Toyoshima
• Session 15:  Female Pattern Hair Loss
• Session 17:  Hair Follicle Biology
• Session 19:  Genetics
• Luncheon Seminar 5:  Zilinka Lulic
• Closing Ceremony

The post World Hair Congress 2017 – Presentations, Pictures & Interviews appeared first on HairLossTalk.

A lot of people started back on treatment with S5 Cream after our big announcement of its return.  Encourage you to check out the article and familiarize yourself with the science, and why the two products are such a big deal.  In the meantime, we get a lot of questions from users about how to properly apply S5 Cream or S5 Plus Cream to hair-bearing areas.

The process is pretty simple, but there are a couple tricks to getting it on the scalp without getting onto too much of your hair.  Likewise, using as little of the solution as possible so those jars last as long as possible.

Is it Necessary to Refrigerate S5 Cream?

First off, this totally is not mandatory, but if you want your jar to last longer, feel free to refrigerate it.  Its shelf life is about a year at room temperature, but everything “cooled” stays “fresher” so I’ve always kept mine in the fridge.

Or at least I’ve kept my “Jar 2” and “Jar 3” refrigerated, while I use Jar 1 in the bathroom.

You may also find that keeping your “current” jar at room temperature will help it spread on warmer and subsequently go clear on your skin faster than a refrigerated solution.

Applying S5 Cream to the Scalp

S5 Cream is in the group of “antiandrogens”, or more properly: “androgen blockers”.  This puts it in the class of hair loss treatments which work best for stopping hair loss.  As a result, this is an outstanding treatment for people who are trying to maintain.

Following this thought to its logical conclusion, this means a lot of guys (and gals) who use it may have a full head of hair.  Or at least a bunch remaining.

So how do you get a cream / lotion onto your scalp when there’s a bunch of hair in the way?

Step 1:  Create a Part in your Hair

As mentioned, the process of how to apply S5 Cream is very simple, but it takes a little practice.  First take your hand, or a straight-comb, and create a part on the farthest edge of the area you wish to treat.

In my case, I created a part on the left side of my head where my hair changes from “going across” my forehead, to “going down” the side.  Right there at that corner, since I tend to thin across the top-middle.

Step 2:  Dab your finger into the S5 Cream

Here you will only need a small amount.  As you try this a few times, you’ll figure out exactly how much you need.   I’m going to repeat this several times, so here’s the first mention:  You only need enough cream to get a microscopic-thin layer of the solution onto your scalp skin.

Step 3:  Smear the cream up the part with your fingertip

This is where you’ll know if you need to dab more, or less the next time around.  If you can make it all the way up the part with an ever-so-small amount, then mission accomplished.

Remember, you only need a micro-thin layer of cream to get onto the skin, and you want to make as little contact with the hair on either side of the part as possible.

Just because it may be more difficult to style your hair.

Pro Tip:   After applying the S5 cream to a thin line up your scalp (on the part), it will absorb and spread either direction a quarter to half-inch over the next hour or so.  This means you don’t need to make another part every millimeter across your scalp.  You can select an area a decent amount away for your next application.  Just visualize that thin line you’re applying, spreading either direction on its own.  A little goes a long way.

Step 4:  Create another part in your hair and repeat

You can continue this process across the top of your head when you apply S5 Cream, until you reach the other ear.   You likely will not lose hair in the 2-3 inches above your ear, so going from “corner” to corner should be sufficient.

Step 5:   Apply a front-line barrier to the hairline (optional)

This is just something that I decided was a “thing” over the 10 years I was using Topical Spironolactone.  Half joking, but half completely sincere here.

I have no idea if it has any basis in science.

In my OCD paranoia about losing hair, I eventually decided that the onslaught of androgens somehow starts at the forehead and moves its way back.

I noticed that hair always starts thinning at the hairline, and becomes less prominent the farther back you go.  So in my head there was significantly stronger androgen activity along the hairline than anywhere else.

As a result, I decided the hairline need a “front line of defense”.  I figured (in my completely unscientific mind) that if I created a “barrier of protection” across the front, it might do something to protect all the hairs behind that.  

For this step of the process, I simply applied a very thin layer of S5 Cream across my hairline, just getting the cream to cover the bottom of the hairs in the front quarter-inch of my hairline.

I did this all the way across.  Scientifically-based or not, it made me feel better

How many times a day should you apply S5 Cream?

As per talking to Dr. Richard Lee years back, Topical Spironolactone seems to have a topical effectiveness period of about 12 hours, so applying it twice a day is necessary.

Of course you can opt to apply it once per day just to get some benefit from the treatment – if you want to start small and pace yourself, or if you’re using other treatments and just want to add a little kick.

It has always been my mindset not to throw the kitchen sink at something that needs to work for 20+ years.

Treating hair loss falls into that category.   So I have always started small and evaluated my progress every 6 months or so.  I can always add more.   What I can’t do is add more if I’ve already been throwing everything onto my scalp!

Immediately after Showering

If you decide to do twice-per-day applications, the first obvious application time would be immediately after a shower.   You can feel good about this as well because the skin is significantly more absorbent after a shower than any other time of day.

If you blow-dry your hair, you can experiment with applying it before, or after the blow-dry.   I personally applied it while still wet, and then blow-dried my hair.

I noticed that the solution seemed to fare just fine through a blow-dry, and it even “heated things up” for better absorption.

The only possible downside to this is that blow-drying can tend to spread it into your hair a bit more.  Especially if you’ve used too much.

So do some trial and error and see what works best for you, but don’t worry that taking a blow-dryer to it after applying it will render it less effective.

Before Bedtime

This seems like the next most logical application time of day.  When your hair is dry and you don’t care how it looks for a solid 12 hours.  As you get better at applying less and less (a little goes a long way), you’ll have fewer issues with residue.

And you’ll get used to that smell.   That’s the Spironolactone.  Every time you smell it, know that you’re fighting hair loss with something extremely potent and effective.  That’s a peace of mind very few people get these days.

So how do you apply S5?

Basically create parts, and smear just a tiny dab up that part.  Then make another “part” in the hair, and do the same.  When you get really proficient at it, you’ll be able to get really good full scalp coverage without getting it into your hair, or affecting your ability to style it.  That “hairline” thing may cause some issues but I just dealt with it

Any other questions?   You can ask them in the comments below.  We will answer as quickly as possible!

Good luck!

The post How to Apply S5 Cream to a Scalp with Thinning Hair appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Also known as PSK-3841 or HMR-3841, RU58841 is a non-steroidal anti-androgen. It was first developed in the 1980’s by researchers looking for androgen blocking treatments.

ARTICLE PURELY FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

Anti-androgens have potential to be used to treat some ‘male’ cancers such as prostate cancer, as well as possibly targeting skin conditions including acne and male-pattern baldness.

RU58841 differs from other anti-androgens in that rather than trying to reduce or block the production of testosterone or DHT, it focuses on the testosterone receptor.

Most hormones work by first combining (or attaching to) a unique receptor in the tissue itself.

RU48851 Binds to the Receptor Site

This action of hormone ‘locking’ onto the receptor is what causes the effects of the hormone.  For example, as you may have heard, the act of DHT “causing” hair loss is this very process.  DHT binding with the receptor.

RU58841 fits into the DHT receptor ‘keyhole’ – so blocking any real DHT from doing so. However, RU58841 does not activate the receptor, so doesn’t cause any of the usual downstream effects.

Topical RU58841 Side Effects

As RU58841 does not affect the production of either testosterone or DHT, the patient’s hormone levels are unchanged. As long as the treatment is localized to the area it is needed, there shouldn’t be any unwanted side-effects..

If it is used on the scalp, by effectively inactivating DHT receptors, RU58841 should be able to stop the miniaturization of the hair follicles seen with ongoing exposure to DHT, and therefore reduce or stop androgenetic alopecia.

It is specifically designed as a topical treatment.

Sold as a Research Compound

Since RU58841 has officially never been approved on the market, it is referred-to as what is known as a “research compound”.

More than 10 years ago there were only a few people who could obtain the compound and actually test it. It was way more expensive than it is now and only a few select people tried it.

These days however RU58841 really found its way into the market. It is way cheaper and has been tried or is being used by many  people for their research. One could say about RU58841 that it is the popular alternative to finasteride.

RU58841 is not unique in its class as a research compound. There are more research compounds sold over the internet for other uses like bodybuilding, anti-aging and cognitive enhancement.

Sold over the counter in Indonesia

There is one exception to this and that is Indonesia. RU58841 is sold there over the counter as an official hair loss treatment. Softer regulations probably allow for this. RU58841 is sold here as a combination treatment with minoxidil.

Studies, Data, and Science

Since RU58841 showed exceptional high topical activity with the lack of systemic  activity the compound led to being investigated by different researchers .

Eventually a company called Prostrakan picked up the compound rights and renamed RU58841 to PSK-3841 and investigated it for therapeutic value for androgenetic alopecia and acne in humans.

RU58841 Before and After

They ran both phase 1 and phase 2 human clinical trials. The first clinical trial consisted of a 5% topical solution administered twice daily over 4 weeks to a total of 30 people.

This led to a phase 2 double blind  multi centre randomized trial which consisted of a 5% and a 2.5% topical solution being administered once a day over a time period of 6 months in 120 people.

After the second phase trial Prostrakan put out the following statement:

“PSK 3841  ProSkelia partnering opportunity, Worldwide Partners are sought by ProSkelia for the development of PSK 3841, Neil Brown, Vice President of Licensing and Acquisitions at ProSkelia, announced during a presentation at BioSquare PSK 3841, a nonsteroidal antiandrogen, has completed phase IIa trials for the treatment of androgenetic  alopecia and a clinical proof-of-concept study to reduce sebum flow and  secretion in patients with acne. Six months of treatment with PSK- 3481  demonstrated equivalent or better net hair growth compared with finasteride”

Anecdotal Reports

There are also a ton of anecdotal reports to find on the internet of users who have used RU58841. It is primarily a attractive compound for people who have side effects with finasteride.

This is also brought forward in the anecdotal reports. Some people who used finasteride with side effects reported no side effects at all with the usage of RU58841.

However clearly the anecdotal reports also show that some people do in fact have some side effects with RU58841 that relate to typical anti-androgen side effects.

RU58841 Before and After

In terms of results, RU58841 seems to be absolutely loved by some people.

Better than Finasteride?

Some people even report better results on it than finasteride  As with all hair loss treatments pretty much nothing works for everyone though. Some people report no noticeable positive effects with the usage of RU58841, but the same could be said for finasteride.

Some people have also tracked their progress through photos. A popular additive to the usage of RU is minoxidil. Here are some pictures of people who have either uses RU as a standalone treatment or in combination with minoxidil:

In terms of animal models it is also interesting to look at the macaque model for androgenetic alopecia. Since these monkeys bald naturally just like humans and androgens have a primary role in the balding they make for a way better animal models than rodents.

In one study RU58841, on topical application, revealed a potent increase in density, thickening, and length of hair in the macaque model of androgenetic alopecia, whereas no systemic effects were detected.

RU58841 Before and After

In another study called “Follicular regrowth with 5 α-reductase inhibitor (finasteride) or androgen receptor blocker (RU58841) in the bald scalp of the stumptailed macaque.”  finasteride 1mg a day and placebo was given to 10 animals each.

Then RU58841 and vehicle were topically applied for a total of 10 animals.  Four of the animals were given a concentration of 5% RU58841, 3 animals a concentration of 0.5% and the other 3 were given the vehicle.

Anagen follicles increased an average of 88% with finasteride and 103% with RU (5%) and growth of vellus follicles to terminal size was 12% with finasteride , and 26% with RU (5%).

RU (0.5%) showed a weak effect and placebos induced no effect. Hair regrowth was observed in varying degrees with both agents; RU (5%) induced the most growth after only 2 months of treatment.

Plasma RU and metabolites (10-20 ng/ml) were detected in 2 cases (5%) at 3, and one at 6, months. Serum DHT decreased about 70% and T (males) increased with finasteride, but exhibited no significant changes with RU.

Why was RU58841 Never Approved for Hair Loss Treatment?

The exact reason is unclear. But is probably because of financial reason. We do know is that Prostrakan was searching for partnering discussions for RU58841 after their 2nd clinical trial.

Out-licensing was a key part of the strategy of Prostrakan but they did identify RU58841 as a value project but not a priority one. You can see the exact information about that in the following picture of a Morgan Stanley report about Prostrakan.

The patent life of RU58841 was also nearings it’s end so this would not be attractive for any company as generics could come into the field.

How to Purchase and Apply RU58841

RU58841 can be either bought in a pre-made solution or as the raw powder form.

For people who don’t want to mix their RU58841, the pre-made solution is an option. The raw powder form is a little cheaper and gives a bit more of flexibility. With the raw powder you can mix your own concentration precisely and you make or use your own “vehicle”.

A vehicle is the solution you will be suspending your RU58841 so that it can be applied. If you buy a pre-made solution the RU58841 is already dissolved in a vehicle ready for use

The most commonly concentration used online seems to be 5%, as this was the concentration that was trialed in the clinical trials by the company Prostrakan in 120 people over a period of 6 months. Going higher than a 5% concentration doesn’t seem to be really popular and most go for a concentration in the 3-5% range.

RU58841 Solution

In terms of vehicles various variations have been used. In the pre-made solutions that can be bought the vehicle consists of ethanol and propylene glycol or K&B solution.

Since some people are more sensitive to propylene glycol the K&B solution offers a less harsh vehicle. The K&B solution was also designed to carry RU58841 over time into the skin due to a film forming agent being included in the formulation. Whether this really holds much value is not clear, it’s probably more a matter of personal preference.

Some like the one vehicle more than the other.

For people who buy the raw powder form there are more options possible. Many people like to mix their RU58841 into minoxidil. That way people have basically 2 strong compound in one solution that have a synergistic effect.

The synergistic effect of minoxidil and RU58841 has been reported in a study done on stumptail macaques. They found that using RU58841 quickly produced better results in combination with minoxidil than either compound alone.

RU58841 powder mixing guide

RU58841 solution can be bought premade if you want. It will work exactly the same but if you want to mix it yourself and spare some money and have the extra flexibility that comes with it you will need to mix it. This is actually very simple to do and consists of the following steps:

1. Getting legit pure RU58841 powder
2. Having a scale that goes by 0.1 or even better 0.01 grams
3. Having your vehicle ready where you will mix the powder in. The powder is dissolved in ethanol so make sure the ethanol content is at least 30% and you should have no problems dissolving the RU58841 in the vehicle. For instance it can be mixed in Kirkland minoxidil, neogenic, P&G solution or K&B solution.
4. Every 1% of RU represents 10mg/ml. So let’s say you have a Kirkland bottle of 60ml and you want to make a 5% RU solution into this you want to have 50mg/ml x 60 ml = 3 gram. So you add 3 gram to the Kirkland minoxidil and shake it really well. Another example let’s say you want to mix a 3% RU concentration in 10ml of K&B solution you want 30mg/ml x 10ml = 300mg in total.

Where to buy RU58841 and Why?

It’s obviously important that the RU58841 is of good quality. To know this for sure the compound needs to be tested for purity & identity. Transparency is an absolute must with this. The company anageninc is the biggest supplier of the product with a good track record. They test their formulation at a government institution. They periodically synthesize new batches so that they are always “fresh”. You can see the overview of testing done in the following file:  http://anageninc.com/media/RU58841%20solution%20stablity%20test%20reports.zip

They transparently share their test results for each batch. The company has also been third party tested many times by users who have ordered the compound for research use. In every instance the compound was indeed RU58841 with a high purity of above 99%.

Summary

RU is a non-steroidal antiandrogen that continues to rise in popularity. Officially it has never been approved on the market and is sold as a research compound but that doesn’t stop people from using it as a hair loss treatment. The reason that it has never been approved isn’t completely clear but it seems it was simply because of financial reasons. It can be seen as a finasteride alternative. Based on short term data that is released it seems to do the job just as good as finasteride or better. The compound can be especially attractive for people who get side effects with finasteride or people who want to combine it with finasteride if they can’t maintain on finasteride alone. Simply said RU58841 has established itself as a powerful treatment besides the likes of finasteride and dutasteride.

ARTICLE PURELY FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

The post RU58841: The Popular Treatment Alternative To Finasteride appeared first on HairLossTalk.

Treatments for baldness are numerous. Some legit, many not at all. The sad truth is that the majority of these treatments are only somewhat effective, which is why most people need to use multiple products to hit the problem from multiple angles.

And even then, guarantees of effectiveness can be completely hit or miss, depending on your personal biology and responsiveness.

But all this could be changing if some new research from UT Southwestern Medical Center results in a novel treatment for men and women who are losing their hair.

UT Southwestern

The discovery pertaining to hair loss was actually a side note in a study that was focusing on causes of graying hair.

They seem to have killed two birds with one stone, so we may have some interesting new treatments in the pipeline soon that not only help you keep your hair, but retain your youthful hair color as well.

The researchers have identified cells that are involved specifically with hair growth, and loss.  They were also able to locate the mechanism that results in hair turning gray.  Dr. Lu Le, an Associate Professional of Dermatology at UT Southwestern stated:

“Although this project was started to understand how certain kinds of tumors form, we ended up learning why hair turns gray and discovering the identity of the cell that directly gives rise to hair. With this knowledge, we hope in the future to create a topical compound or safely deliver the necessary gene to hair follicles to correct these cosmetic problems.”

L’Oreal has Studied Hair Color for Years

In a 2012 study, they looked at how many people were dealing with gray hair throughout the world. The results found that 74% of 45 to 65-year-olds were dealing with some gray hair that covered up to 27% of their head.

While those who were ages 56 to 60 years old had around 86% gray hair.  Roughly a third of their head. The correlation was that as a person ages, the higher the chances of developing gray hair.

Where the Research Was Done

A significant portion of the population is balding, and thinning hair in women is more common than you may think.

Between the two several tens of millions of people in the United States alone are dealing with at least some loss of hair. This does not account for the rest of the world. Going bald or developing gray hair can have devastating effects on a person.

If you’re reading this article, you’re already full aware the psychological impact losing hair can have on your entire outlook.  Depression, sadness, and a sensation of  “aging” can lead to some very strong feelings.  While many people simply find their gray or balding hair a downer, others may be suffering with deep and severe psychological issues due to this.

Findings like these could have a huge impact on millions around the world.

The Findings

Dr. Lu Le

The study was initially conduced to look into a disorder called Neurofibromatosis Type 1.

This is a genetic disease that is relatively rare, and known to cause tumor growth in the nerves. The researcher was able to isolate a protein called KROX20, associated with nerve development. This protein turns on in skin cells that will eventually become a hair shaft.

These cells then produce a protein called stem cell factor (SCF), which has been shown to be essential in hair pigmentation.

The doctors were able to delete the SCF gene in the mice that were being studied. When this occurred, the hair on the mouse turned white.

When the scientist deleted the KROX20 protein, no hair grew — and baldness was seen in the mice!

Scientist already had a good idea that SCF was important for pigmented cells and making hair. However, these new details have highlighted the importance of SCF when it moves down into the base of the hair follicle and how KROX20 is involved in the creation of the hair shaft.

How These Proteins Interact

For those who have healthy that is not gray or balding, these two proteins are going to move up from the bulb of the hair strain, interact with pigment-producing melanocyte cells, and grow into pigmented hairs.

The result is a beautiful head of hair. The problems arrive for people when they are not producing enough of either one of the proteins.

The future of this study is to identify what causes the KROX20 and the SCF gene to stop working as a person ages.

There are hopes that this information could also lead to answers about why we age in general, as many people find that graying hair or balding is one of the first signs that they are aging.

The information that is found via these studies could allow for researchers to develop new products that are treating the underlying causes of why a person goes gray or bald. It could be revolutionary for those who have tried other treatment methods and found no success.

This is one bit of research to keep an eye on in the future!

The post New Causes of Balding and Gray Hair Discovered appeared first on HairLossTalk.