OFFICIAL Verteporfin Human Trial *OFFICIAL THREAD

[Melvin- Admin]

As you know, yesterday I interviewed @DrTBarghouthi to date, Dr. Barghouthi is the only physician testing Verteporfin in the field of surgical hair restoration. Verteporfin is a drug that prevents the pathway to scarring, specifically Engrailed-1 fibroblasts. Scars lack hair and sebaceous glands, and other dermal appendages such as the hair matrix and dermal papilla necessary for hair growth. Verteporfin aims to treat scarring by treating these three key factors, promoting regrowth of dermal matrix structures and appendages (normal skin and hair follicle growth). 

Here's an article  with the research that has been done at Stanford University using Vertoporfin on mice.

Here is a quote from the study:

"The results were astounding, Longaker said. The healed skin looked completely normal. “There must be three things for wound healing to be true skin regeneration,” Longaker said. “The skin needs to have normal hair follicles and glands, it needs to have a normal appearance under a microscope, and it needs to be just as strong as normal skin.”

“The first thing we were shocked by was the all the hair in the healed wound,” he said. “We were also able to see normal glands and showed that the skin was just as strong as unwounded skin.”

Now, we have to be realistic. I'm cynical when it comes to hair loss regeneration. I'm optimistic, but wait to see how the trial on humans go, but even if 25% of the hair follicles grow back, this would increase the number of lifetime grafts DRAMATICALLY. If you have a donor capacity of 8,000 grafts, that would bump you up to the 10,000 number. 

I have attached the photos from the most recent photos from the study. This thread will be updated by @DrTBarghouthi as the results come in. 

 

[hairman22]

if hair didnt grow back and scars healed

could leave the option to take all the hair in the donor

a permanent fade

[Melvin- Admin]

 

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, hairman22 said:

if hair didnt grow back and scars healed

could leave the option to take all the hair in the donor

a permanent fade

Theoretically, if it does regenerate hair. You could over harvest the donor, and the hair would grow back. That said, I wouldn’t be hopeful that it will regrow all the hair. There were similar speculations with acell years ago, and it didn’t work. So healthy skepticism is good. 

[hairman22]

11 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Theoretically, if it does regenerate hair. You could over harvest the donor, and the hair would grow back. That said, I wouldn’t be hopeful that it will regrow all the hair. There were similar speculations with acell years ago, and it didn’t work. So healthy skepticism is good. 

What im thinking

is you could remove all the donor have no scarring & just use if for the top

would be worth a try if it worked in terms of no scarring in the donor

Better than the horseshoe

[Nw7HPE]

That's awesome , we need more Drs taking leaps and jumping the red tapes in order to find new treatments . Semi-cure with the current hair transplants and BHT techniques will essentially be a cure . LETS GOOOOOO!

[LookMaxx]

Exciting stuff! Hope this brings good results one way or another 

[HairRun]

When  will Dr. Barghouthi post the next update for his trial? 

Edited July 28, 2022 by HairRun

[Melvin- Admin]

Let me tag him @DrTBarghouthi 

[DrTBarghouthi]

Thanks guys. I should have an update on Saturday. It will be a 45 days update. 

[Britanium]

1 minute ago, DrTBarghouthi said:

Thanks guys. I should have an update on Saturday. It will be a 45 days update. 

Look forward to that 🙏

[Big Rome]

On 7/22/2022 at 7:17 PM, Melvin- Moderator said:

As you know, yesterday I interviewed @DrTBarghouthi to date, Dr. Barghouthi is the only physician testing Verteporfin in the field of surgical hair restoration. Verteporfin is a drug that prevents the pathway to scarring, specifically Engrailed-1 fibroblasts. Scars lack hair and sebaceous glands, and other dermal appendages such as the hair matrix and dermal papilla necessary for hair growth. Verteporfin aims to treat scarring by treating these three key factors, promoting regrowth of dermal matrix structures and appendages (normal skin and hair follicle growth). 

Here's an article  with the research that has been done at Stanford University using Vertoporfin on mice.

Here is a quote from the study:

"The results were astounding, Longaker said. The healed skin looked completely normal. “There must be three things for wound healing to be true skin regeneration,” Longaker said. “The skin needs to have normal hair follicles and glands, it needs to have a normal appearance under a microscope, and it needs to be just as strong as normal skin.”

“The first thing we were shocked by was the all the hair in the healed wound,” he said. “We were also able to see normal glands and showed that the skin was just as strong as unwounded skin.”

Now, we have to be realistic. I'm cynical when it comes to hair loss regeneration. I'm optimistic, but wait to see how the trial on humans go, but even if 25% of the hair follicles grow back, this would increase the number of lifetime grafts DRAMATICALLY. If you have a donor capacity of 8,000 grafts, that would bump you up to the 10,000 number. 

I have attached the photos from the most recent photos from the study. This thread will be updated by @DrTBarghouthi as the results come in. 

 

groundbreaking stuff for the HT community. good work @DrTBarghouthi 👏🏻👏🏻💎

[DrTBarghouthi]

Hi guys. This is a 42 days follow up. I have kept the photos blinded in case you guys want to have a guess about dosage and which photo is a test or control area. It helps at times when we blind the results. I will share the exact dose and T vs C later. 

 

 

[LandWhale]

I hope the left Y-pictures is the 0.4 mg treated area, because I see a potentially new hair growing there. It also looks very clean and scarless.

[LookMaxx]

The difference is so clear 😳

[Melvin- Admin]

4 hours ago, LandWhale said:

I hope the left Y-pictures is the 0.4 mg treated area, because I see a potentially new hair growing there. It also looks very clean and scarless.

Could it be? 😳

[HairRun]

I'm having a hard time identifying where the scar tissue is. Maybe there's some brighter circles on the right size of Z but that's it for me. 

[sr1486]

Really hope this works. I have a keloid scar from my fut that I have to cover up every day with hair fibers, even when my hair is cut at a 6 or 7 guard.

being able to have it removed and then heal without it forming a scar would be amazing. Even without hair regeneration. At least then the SMP will stick. Wasted several thousand dollars getting SMP into this scar, like 6 sessions

[BaldReaper]

On 7/31/2022 at 1:21 PM, DrTBarghouthi said:

Hi guys. This is a 42 days follow up. I have kept the photos blinded in case you guys want to have a guess about dosage and which photo is a test or control area. It helps at times when we blind the results. I will share the exact dose and T vs C later. 

 

 

Don't the FUE white dot scars normally need about 6-7 months to form?

Edited August 2, 2022 by BaldV

[DrTBarghouthi]

Apologies for the delay in answering anyone- I’ll update any future photos with clearer labels of scars etc. This was anyway an unplanned 6 weeks follow up but the proposed follow up was at 8 weeks which is still next Saturday. Will keep you all posted here. 

[WhereIsMyMind]

Id say the more rugged areas are the Verteporfin treated ones. Vert is known to delay wound healing, which is actually the mechanism behind not producing scar tissue, so in theory the treated area should look worse until fully healed.

I am excited to see results... even if it doesnt regrow hair, why would any surgeon ever not use Verteporfin? it makes the donor area much healthier.

[alopeciaphobia]

Incredible that this is finally being tested!

Although, my main concern is if the control and test areas in the donor region are not too close together? Wouldn't the capillary beds in the scalp potentially spread around the verteporfin that is injected into the T-area further around into the C-areas?

[DrTBarghouthi]

Hi Guys. These are the photos 56 days after. What I find interesting is the presence of fine hairs nearby or around T areas . Not sure what to make of it or whether telogen hairs, but I couldn’t find them around Controls but I did find then around or within “some” of the scars in T areas across three doses.

 

 

 

 

 

[DrTBarghouthi]

On 8/10/2022 at 4:31 PM, alopeciaphobia said:

Incredible that this is finally being tested!

Although, my main concern is if the control and test areas in the donor region are not too close together? Wouldn't the capillary beds in the scalp potentially spread around the verteporfin that is injected into the T-area further around into the C-areas?

Considering we needed to test different doses I had to make the squares nearby but we left around 1 cm between the squares to minimize this cross coverage. Remember that volumes are tiny imo to overalp that much.  

[WhereIsMyMind]

Amazing... it really seems that 3 follicles are regrowing from the T areas and its reasuring nothing similar can be found in control areas.

I would say there is literally no reason a HT surgeon should *not* use Verteporfin in all donor extractions even with current results (less scarring, chances of hair regrowth...). I wonder when or if surgeons will transition into this treatment considering its an already FDA approved drug. It will also make the HT capabilities further and be good for the business.