'Baldness Cure' - Stem cells used to create hair follices

[Slickers]

What do you guys make of this article that a research team in Tokyo Univesity have used stem cells to create hair follicles from scratch....

 

 

 

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/baldness-cure-mouse-.html

[Time to do something]

I saw a video on this today. I'll believe it when I see it.

[theportchesterpirate]

I have seen perfect results on a burns victim growing new skin from stem cell harvesting, not seen anything about growing follicles from stem cells, one day maybe.

[southbeacharchi]

I read about this the other day at work. I don't know what there is to question. It is science and they have done it.

I would say the better question or debate would be as to how long until it is readily available and/or reasonably priced. I think the article I read said they were hoping to have it ready and available in 10 years? or maybe my mind is making that up. That sounds reasonable though.

[Time to do something]

Yes it is science. So was Propecia, Minoxidil and countless other baldness "cures". Back when those came out they were labeled to be the "end of baldness" and science had documentation that it worked. We know now that not only was it not a cure but Propecia had major side effects in some men. I also read that there could be even bigger side effects from implanting cloned/stem cell hair into the scalp. I'm not saying it is impossible. I'm just saying scientist/media have been calling wolf for too many years for me to not be skeptical. Based on past history why should I beleive this is the cure? That is why I'll beleive it when I see it. I'm not negative just a realist.

[southbeacharchi]

Yes it is science. So was Propecia, Minoxidil and countless other baldness "cures". Back when those came out they were labeled to be the "end of baldness" and science had documentation that it worked. We know now that not only was it not a cure but Propecia had major side effects in some men. I also read that there could be even bigger side effects from implanting cloned/stem cell hair into the scalp. I'm not saying it is impossible. I'm just saying scientist/media have been calling wolf for too many years for me to not be skeptical. Based on past history why should I beleive this is the cure? That is why I'll beleive it when I see it. I'm not negative just a realist.

 

Wow. You are very passionate about this area. To be honest I don't remember what exactly was said of Propecia and Rogaine when they came out or their promises, so I can't comment on that. I also haven't read, other than that article, much about stem cell hair.....I was just saying it looked promising. I also said that it probably wasn't anywhere close to being a reality for humans.

Maybe we'll have a cure for cancer before the hair cloning is perfected.....wouldn't that be great?

[theportchesterpirate]

Bonkers! this topic comes on here and there is piece on cloning hair follicles on Discovery. So this company based in the UK has performed a small number of procedure's involving extracting stem cells from hair follicles, cloning the follicles and carrying out some ht procedure's. At the end of the trials they concluded that 40% of the cloned follicles actually went on to produce hair, if they ever do get this cracked! i'm guessing it will be damn expensive.

[Time to do something]

FYI-I borrowed this from another site:

 

"There will still be some problems associated with cloning. One is an increased risk of cancer. The growth-inducing chemicals such as tetradecanoylphorbol acetate (TPA) used to stimulate cellular proliferation for cloning frequently promote tumors and cancer. While cancer risk is low for most cloned cell products, cloning hair follicle stem cells is riskier.

 

Dermatologists have observed that many basal cell carcinomas, a type of skin cancer that is the most common human tumor, seem to originate from the hair follicle. Cotsarelis notes in the 2000 paper presented in "Dermatology Focus": "the fact that that basal cell carcinomas are slow-growing tumors composed of poorly differentiated cells that have the ability to differentiate into various adnexal structures strongly suggests that the cell of origin is a pluripotent, slowly cycling stem cell with a highly proliferative potential." What he's saying is that molecular and genetic evidence points to the hair follicle stem cell as the source for this common form of cancer. Cloning hair follicle stem cells with cancer-inducing chemicals will require many years of study to assure the safety of the cloned follicles that result."

 

Thoughts? I'm not trying to dash any hopes, because I'd like to see a solution as much as anyone else. But this sounds like a potentially serious - and not easily detectable - problem.

[mahhong]

FYI-I borrowed this from another site:

 

"There will still be some problems associated with cloning. One is an increased risk of cancer. The growth-inducing chemicals such as tetradecanoylphorbol acetate (TPA) used to stimulate cellular proliferation for cloning frequently promote tumors and cancer. While cancer risk is low for most cloned cell products, cloning hair follicle stem cells is riskier.

 

Dermatologists have observed that many basal cell carcinomas, a type of skin cancer that is the most common human tumor, seem to originate from the hair follicle. Cotsarelis notes in the 2000 paper presented in "Dermatology Focus": "the fact that that basal cell carcinomas are slow-growing tumors composed of poorly differentiated cells that have the ability to differentiate into various adnexal structures strongly suggests that the cell of origin is a pluripotent, slowly cycling stem cell with a highly proliferative potential." What he's saying is that molecular and genetic evidence points to the hair follicle stem cell as the source for this common form of cancer. Cloning hair follicle stem cells with cancer-inducing chemicals will require many years of study to assure the safety of the cloned follicles that result."

 

Thoughts? I'm not trying to dash any hopes, because I'd like to see a solution as much as anyone else. But this sounds like a potentially serious - and not easily detectable - problem.

 

I think it's all very exciting stuff, but what you posted above shows why we shouldn't be too quick to believe this is going to be on our shelves or in surgery in the near future.

 

All sorts of treatments/surgery/scans etc. technically put patients at higher risk of developing cancer, so the first thing will be to statistically analyse what the extra risk will be and, if too high, research ways in which that risk might be lowered. Stem cell/cloning research is truly exciting and is going to be the revolution of our time, but this is the prevailing problem with it; altering and growing cells is potentially dangerous and we still don't know the full story about what we're doing. I have no doubt scientists will be able to overcome all these barriers, but with, you guessed it, time!

 

Ultimately I wouldn't hold out hope that the "cure" is near yet, even though the science behind the cure is currently being researched. These things do take decades to really come into their own; by the time you've developed stuff, trialled it, re-developed and researched problems, found a way to bring the product to the market and given the product a few years to really penetrate the market and become common within the medical skillset you're probably looking at at least a decade before anything being talked about now is ready for us; with some treatments a lot longer even.

 

That's just the way things work. In the meantime I'm sure there will be improvements and additions to the drugs/techniques available, but propecia, minoxidil and HTs are going to be with us for a long time yet and I wouldn't hedge your bets too much on a replacement as successful as any of them for at least a few years, potentially a decade or more.

[Time to do something]

Well said Mahhong. Take hair transplants for example. The first ones were very crude and done in the 1950's but it wasn't until 50 years later that they were perfected enough to look cosmetically acceptable and even now there are many issues with them which still doesn't cure baldness.

[southbeacharchi]

Bonkers! this topic comes on here and there is piece on cloning hair follicles on Discovery. So this company based in the UK has performed a small number of procedure's involving extracting stem cells from hair follicles, cloning the follicles and carrying out some ht procedure's. At the end of the trials they concluded that 40% of the cloned follicles actually went on to produce hair, if they ever do get this cracked! i'm guessing it will be damn expensive.

 

Yes, I don't have to even worry about considering it because I would never be able to afford it. lol

[Slickers]

I completely agree with the sentiment and only an idiot would take the media sensationalism headline 'baldness cure' or indeed the promise of 3 years at face value. But it is yet another interesting development in an exciting new field of medical research.

 

TDS fair point on the last 50 years in terms of hair transplants but that kind of overlooks that the real developments, as in almost every medical field, have happened in the last 15/ 20 years or even more recently. We can clone animals, undertake major organ transplants successfully.... this year we saw the first truly cosmetically acceptable facial reconstruction, a phenomenal surgical first.

 

Don't get me wrong, none of these are without their side effects or drawbacks and I too am I a realist, but I do think there's a certain truth in there being more promise in modern developments than those we've seen in the past.

[Time to do something]

As soon as a large number of people have had acceptable results with this, it is proven safe, and affordable for the average person I'm in....if I'm under 90 years old.

[southbeacharchi]

I completely agree with the sentiment and only an idiot would take the media sensationalism headline 'baldness cure' or indeed the promise of 3 years at face value. But it is yet another interesting development in an exciting new field of medical research.

 

I hope that was directed at me. I never said I took anything at face value. This debate could go on forever. Face value is, someone accomplished cloning hair on mice. It is a step. The end.....Now, relax, sit back, and see what develops.