Hair Cloning
The “cure” for baldness may be just around the corner! Hair cloning is a very promising innovative treatment for male and female pattern hair loss, or androgenic alopecia. It could also be used on patients who suffer from other types of hair loss like traction alopecia.
A sample of a patient’s hair follicle cells would be harvested from the scalp and then multiplied in vitro or outside of the body. Once the desired amount of follicles are produced, they would be transplanted back in to the areas of the scalp that need to be treated in hopes that they will grow new permanent hair.
Hair multiplication and cloning are very similar, but technically there is a difference between true cloning and the technique used for hair multiplication. Hair multiplication is basically exactly what it sounds like. Donor hair follicles are harvested from the scalp and then manipulated in such a way that the total amount of hair will increase. Many different studies are being done using the method of hair multiplication. They have tried using just a plucked hair as well as hair that has been extracted using a punch. Some studies have shown that using an extra cellular matrix (ECM) may help stimulate growth and therefore make these hairs more likely to survive implantation and be able to grow into fully developed hairs.
Hair cloning is a little misleading as far as what it literally means though. Hair follicles are very complex and have presented some significant challenges as far as being able to just simply multiply them in a test tube.
Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Jahoda, who have been working with Dr. Christiano at Columbia University, seem to have made some great progress in overcoming this obstacle. These researchers have shown that the dermal sheath cells that are found in the lower area of the hair follicle can actually be isolated from one person and then be injected into the scalp of another person and still promote the formation of a brand new intact hair. Technically, this is not cloning, but the theory is that these dermal sheath cells could potentially be multiplied in a petri dish and then injected into the scalp in almost limitless amounts to produce a full head of hair. This is still a very hypothetical theory at this point though, because it has not actually been accomplished with any great results so far.
A very interesting part of this study was that it was a male that the hair follicles were harvested from and then injected into a female, who was able to successfully grow new hair. This is a great breakthrough, because the possibility of having another person donate donor hair is now proven to be potentially available even if they are not related or even of the same sex. This too is very early in its testing.
This treatment for hair loss is still very early in its testing, and I personally would not expect any readily available hair cloning procedures to be available for the public for at least another 5 to 10 years. But we may actually see it in our lifetime, and that will be a very awesome breakthrough!
