Verteporfin HAIR REGENERATION HUMAN TRIAL Dr. Barghouthi *OFFICIAL THREAD

[alopeciaphobia]

Amazing! Is it me, or is that a triple FU growing back in the 0.24 pic?

Also guys, who cares about tiny scars if the hair grows back and thus said tiny scars would be covered up by thick luscious locks?

[Ganderson]

15 minutes ago, alopeciaphobia said:

Amazing! Is it me, or is that a triple FU growing back in the 0.24 pic?

Also guys, who cares about tiny scars if the hair grows back and thus said tiny scars would be covered up by thick luscious locks?

Honestly …. I mean, it has to be healing differently. I have a scar on my chin, it’s white, and there are no hairs growing out of it!! 

[SkyeBelcher]

On 8/25/2022 at 9:19 AM, DrTBarghouthi said:

Very promising we hope. I agree it is still early to make any conclusions. As for transections, the extracted grafts were checked for that to outrule it. Could still be a telogen hair ofcourse at time of extraction. In all cases, we keep following up and the coming weeks will hopefully give a better indication. 
I have another case lined up end of this month/ early September it is a full transplant though. I am looking at exact dosage to give in that case. 

Hey Dr Barghouthi,

 

Do you have any updates around the full FUE transplant you're looking to do? 

I assume that the current results are interesting enough to warrant a full test?

[WhereIsMyMind]

This is insane.. the difference between test and control areas is massive

[alopeciaphobia]

14 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Keep in mind, the hairs look very thin and weak, so it is still early, but definitely encouraging.

Thats also the part I'm very thrilled and excited about. Will those hairs stay semi-miniaturized looking, or will they gradually thicken up?

Since the follicle (re)generates from scratch, perhaps it also starts off very thin, and then goes through some phases of gradual thickening, just like new hair growth on the scalp and body during childhood and adolescence. Only time will tell.

Nevertheless, even if the grown back hairs stay thin, it would *still* be a massive improvement in cosmetic appearance of the donor zone. After all, it's the gaps between the FUs that tend to be very noticable, that would be covered up better.

[Square1]

Although there are still many question marks regarding this procedure that can, in an absolute worst case scenario, render the addition of verteporfin pretty useless in the end (what if the regenerated hairs don't thicken up and disappear after 6 months?) , the results so far get me more hyped than any other new development as of the last decades. This includes the more sci-fi cloning stuff that only seems to work in mice but never shown any PoC in humans yet.

If everything falls our way (hairs grow thick and luscious, and even the removal of a transplanted follicle can cause a new follicle with verteporfin use), this might actually be the cure. Which is still a long shot, but not impossible.

Anyways, however it ends, again crazy credits for dr. Barghouthi for at least giving it a shot.

 

 

[xhomer]

How will this work on an average FUE hair transplant of 2000 grafts? will you have to do 2000 injections on each graft? is not that very complicated and maybe too much verteporfin in the body? Will this work also as a gel/spray applied after the transplant that would be easier to apply?

[MrFox]

1 hour ago, Square1 said:

Although there are still many question marks regarding this procedure that can, in an absolute worst case scenario, render the addition of verteporfin pretty useless in the end (what if the regenerated hairs don't thicken up and disappear after 6 months?) , the results so far get me more hyped than any other new development as of the last decades. This includes the more sci-fi cloning stuff that only seems to work in mice but never shown any PoC in humans yet.

If everything falls our way (hairs grow thick and luscious, and even the removal of a transplanted follicle can cause a new follicle with verteporfin use), this might actually be the cure. Which is still a long shot, but not impossible.

Anyways, however it ends, again crazy credits for dr. Barghouthi for at least giving it a shot.

 

 

I think this is why it is so important to keep pushing testing, because this is really the first attempt at it. We don't even know if this is the optimal dosing yet and we already have had a big improvement over baseline scarring. I don't think we should worry too much about the hairs being thin at this point either, we continue to see big improvements with every update so it may well be this is just the natural process it takes for the hair to grow. Even with current hair transplantation we know the hairs take a while to start growing completely normal again, stands to reason the same would be true for newly created follicles. 

[LookMaxx]

How zoomed in are these pictures? Because if only a few hairs pop out when you take thousands, it’s not really useful I think. 
 

 

[Ganderson]

52 minutes ago, LookMaxx said:

How zoomed in are these pictures? Because if only a few hairs pop out when you take thousands, it’s not really useful I think. 
 

 

Think about it like this - we’re trying for the first time to use this medication in humans (outside of our eyes) to see what the effects will be. We have no idea what the correct dosage, amount of injections, combinations, delivery method, etc should be, but on this very first experiment we may get 10/1000 hairs regrown. We may get 40% better scarring. It may not sound exciting to you today, but it’s very unlikely we get the “best result” on our first experiment. That’s why everyone is so excited… Dr. b is testing a concept, not displaying a cure. 

[deeznuts]

Is this something we can ask our doctor to do? I have an appointment for a transplant in March and it sounds interesting to try and get verteporfin done

[SkyeBelcher]

1 hour ago, deeznuts said:

Is this something we can ask our doctor to do? I have an appointment for a transplant in March and it sounds interesting to try and get verteporfin done

Could ask your doctor about it. Wouldn't hurt to see how they'd respond

[LookMaxx]

20 hours ago, Ganderson said:

Think about it like this - we’re trying for the first time to use this medication in humans (outside of our eyes) to see what the effects will be. We have no idea what the correct dosage, amount of injections, combinations, delivery method, etc should be, but on this very first experiment we may get 10/1000 hairs regrown. We may get 40% better scarring. It may not sound exciting to you today, but it’s very unlikely we get the “best result” on our first experiment. That’s why everyone is so excited… Dr. b is testing a concept, not displaying a cure. 

Gotcha, that’s a fair point 

[Magic City]

I wonder how long it will be before more doctors start trialling this in their practice. With each update, verteporfin is looking more and more promising. Sure, there may need to be some dosing adjustment and the exact protocol needs to be worked out, but this looks like it has real potential. Also, good for doctors as well as patients as more grafts available which could mean more potential surgeries if required. 

 

[augustya]

On 8/19/2022 at 11:37 AM, DrTBarghouthi said:

Thank you all for your kind words guys. I really hope that we will have something that can significantly improve the hair loss industry and scarring.!

Hello Dr have left a message for you on PM. 

[alopeciaphobia]

2 hours ago, Magic City said:

Also, good for doctors as well as patients as more grafts available which could mean more potential surgeries if required.

Very good point. In the hypothetical case that it will regrow most of the hairs nicely, imagine a NW7 patient who wants a dense head of hair and a youthful hairline, for whom money is no object. The patients dreams could come true, while the surgeon can make absolutely stupid amounts of money from just a single patient. 

[JohnnyBravo]

Fun fact:

"Verte por fin" in spanish means something like "finally getting to see you" or "seeing you at last" ...

 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

On 9/16/2022 at 7:02 PM, JohnnyBravo said:

Fun fact:

"Verte por fin" in spanish means something like "finally getting to see you" or "seeing you at last" ...

 

 

Lol I just realized this good catch 

[curious_12]

Could we get some information on this drug and how it was applied. I am not sure if it is something regular people can just buy but I imagine if it is fda approved it wouldn't be too difficult to find a willing vendor somewhere. I think these results show some promise and should really be investigated thoroughly (examining all applications and benefits) and promptly (even if it worked flawlessly, I imagine it would take some time for clinics to have enough data to feel comfortable with it). Since it is a fairly safe drug I don't think it is a bad idea for people to begin experimenting with it to chisel away some of this waiting time.  

[Square1]

2 hours ago, curious_12 said:

Could we get some information on this drug and how it was applied. I am not sure if it is something regular people can just buy but I imagine if it is fda approved it wouldn't be too difficult to find a willing vendor somewhere. I think these results show some promise and should really be investigated thoroughly (examining all applications and benefits) and promptly (even if it worked flawlessly, I imagine it would take some time for clinics to have enough data to feel comfortable with it). Since it is a fairly safe drug I don't think it is a bad idea for people to begin experimenting with it to chisel away some of this waiting time.  

I think I will wait until licensed clinicians perform the treatment. There is some wounding / follicle removal required, which can go wrong if done by the untrained people. 

Having said that, I can completely understand people experimenting with this, as there is literally nothing else promising even remotely on the horizon. Tsuji has failed, Stemson has yet to demonstrate a PoC, Dnovo is very small and hasn't shown anything in months. Other upcoming treatments just don't seem to be that enticing. Kintor might bring a small improvement at best, but nothing to get really excited over etc.etc.

This experiment however has the potential to significantly change the hairloss landscape. 

 

 

[sirlancelot__]

Hey @DrTBarghouthiThank you much for thorough updates and the open communication on this forum.  There seems to be some confusion whether this treatment is possible for people who have had transplants in the past with hope to cure depleted doner area & scarring. OR is this thought to work on new extracted doner area in which this treatment would be in conjuction with the transplant process ONLY; therefore meaning this treatment would only be useful for those who plan on future transplant and hope to reduce scarring as opposed to cure scarring of past transplants. THANKS. 

[Rasputin]

I mean, even if it doesn't regrow hair in the end, but allow to have a scarless surgery, that would still be some kind of "cure" for hair loss, don't you think?

We could just harvest all the beard hair even from the cheeks, moustache etc, I know it's already done, but I'm sure some people just don't want to because of the potential scarring.

I see many cases of BHT where the surgeon explains that the patient didn't want to use beard from the face, only under the chin.

An average beard supposedly has 3000 to 5000 grafts, let's say for a Norwood 7 you can harvest maximum 2500-3000 grafts from the donor scalp, it would be already a huge improvement to get between 6000 and 8000 grafts on the recipient.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Rasputin

[WhereIsMyMind]

10 hours ago, sirlancelot__ said:

Hey @DrTBarghouthiThank you much for thorough updates and the open communication on this forum.  There seems to be some confusion whether this treatment is possible for people who have had transplants in the past with hope to cure depleted doner area & scarring. OR is this thought to work on new extracted doner area in which this treatment would be in conjuction with the transplant process ONLY; therefore meaning this treatment would only be useful for those who plan on future transplant and hope to reduce scarring as opposed to cure scarring of past transplants. THANKS. 

its only for fresh wounds. the method of action of verteporfin is literally blocking the scarring and healing process of a fresh wound. So no, it shouldn't work for fixing old scars because the goal is not even reaching that point.

That said, creativity exists, you could potentially wound an area on purpose that is scarred and treat with verteporfin and something might happen.

[xhomer]

If this needs 0.24mg injection per removed graft and an average FUE transplant is 2000 grafts it is 480mg of medication that is injected in our body, is it not too much? what side effects can this cause in our body? I dont think such high dose have been tested or approved? does anyone know max dose approved for verteporfin? 

[TakeAction]

Theoretically if verteporfin prevents scars could the entire donor area be extracted and then treated with SMP in order to move the entire donor on top and give the appearance of a zero guard on the sides?