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+--- Forum: General hair replacement discussion (https://forum.toplace.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Thread: anyoneheard anything on this?study came out today. (/showthread.php?tid=5131)
anyoneheard anything on this?study came out today. - cameraguy - 04-19-2012
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/18/study-raises-hopes-potential-cure-for-baldness/
RE: anyoneheard anything on this?study came out today. - readytogo - 04-19-2012
Very cool. That is the best method we can hope for from any true hair loss "cure" - hair cloning and grafting. We will never in our lifetimes be able to fully stop or prevent hair loss. The genetics are too complex. Agents like propecia are crude and just stop hair loss by neutering your supply of DHT.
But if we can take stem cells from balding resistant follicles and clone them, multiple them out into a lawn of hair, we can theoretically do real proper transplants with enough follicles to get a natural density result.
The caveats are: (1) Stem cells are much easier to manipulate in rats than humans, so this might take some time to duplicate in humans, and (2) The safety of such genetically engineered hair follicles would take decades to establish in humans.
It's not necessarily going to be the case, but who would want a head full of genetically engineered transplants if they are going to potentially degenerate into carcinoma 15 years later? I certainly wouldn't be an early adopter.
News like this may bode well for future generations. For those of us dealing with hair loss now, shaving your head or wearing a hair piece are the only two viable methods in my opinion. I don't expect that to change any time soon.