It looks like this author’s bald spot may no longer be just that. That’s assuming scientists have got it right and are able to take advantage of a breakthrough and bring it to market. How long do scientists anticipate before you can finally hold your head up high gentlemen (literally)? As less than 5 years…
dailymail.co.uk: The breakthrough, from the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S, centres on a protein called PDG2.
When the scientists analysed the scalps of balding men, they found levels of PDG2 to be three times higher in areas in which the hair was thinning.
In tests on lab and on mice, the compound stunted hair growth, the journal Science Translational Medicine reports.
Earlier work by the same team found bald men have cells capable of making hair, they have just failed to mature.
So if a equals male pattern baldness and b is where it picks up speed then c equals the place where I can now stop it in its tracks, d is product of where the ginger man can no longer catch me….
Like most drug discoveries this came almost as a fluke (the way propecia came as a by product of dealing with high blood pressure) as Hair Guard explains PGD2 came as a result of doctors attempting to deal with asthma:
It is thought that PGD2 prevents the cells maturing – and stopping it from working would allow hair to grow again.
Drugs that block PGD2 are already been tested by drug companies looking for new treatments for asthma.
They have been formulated as pills but it should be possible to turn them into ‘topical preparations’ – creams or lotions that could be applied to the scalp.
But will it all work, even if researchers are able to translate the oral dosage to a topical application?
‘We certainly think it would be good at preventing hair loss but we don’t know for sure that it would regrow.’
Lab test suggest the treatment may also help women who are losing their hair, although Dr Cotsarelis wants to do more work on this.
Learning more about hair loss could also have wider implications, as the process shares some chemistry with skin cancer and with wound healing.
Dr Cotsarelis said: ‘We think these findings will have implications beyond male pattern baldness but, even if they don’t, we think it will be exciting.
Oh well, back to the drawing board. Or maybe not? I’d hate to think where my bald spot will be in 5 years….ugh. Here’s to science.
As a friend once said, some you win and some you just keep losing. Indeed….
when i will get the drug in my hand