Scientific breakthrough made for hair loss treatments

A new breakthrough by British scientists has raised hope for those suffering with hair loss, and the therapy may even provide help to victims of burns.

The results of the tests could pave the way for more hair loss treatments for both men and women, after results demonstrated it was possible to grow new hair follicles from human skin cells – basically the cells that contain the ‘instruction book’ for growing new hair.

Tests are still at an early stage, but the scientists from Durham University in the UK and Columbia University in the U.S. claim that their findings represent a huge breakthrough in treating hair loss that effects millions of men and women around the world, often causing a great deal of distress.

Not only this, but it seems a 40-year wait could be over in the futile efforts to successfully regenerate the crucial structures in the skin that enable hair to grow.

Human hair follicles are incredibly difficult to replicate in a laboratory environment, but the new technique has shown evidence they can be stimulated to grow in skin tissue and also to generate hair shafts.

Currently, expensive hair transplants notoriously used by footballer Wayne Rooney involve the surgeon transplanting hair follicles from the back of the head (where there is plentiful hair) to where it is needed at the front. Therefore, they are simply redistributing already present hair compared to the new technique which could significantly boost the amount of hairs on the head.

Columbia University researcher Dr Angela Christiano, herself a sufferer of alopecia and experiences clumps of hair falling out, said the research “has the potential to transform the medical treatment of hair loss”.

“Our method…has the potential to actually grow new follicles using a patient’s own cells. This could greatly expand the utility of hair-restoration surgery to women and to younger patients – now it is largely restricted to the treatment of male-pattern baldness in patients with stable disease. It could make hair transplantation available to individuals with a limited number of follicles, including those with female-pattern hair loss, scarring alopecia and hair loss due to burns,” she said.

The team of scientists started extracting tiny cells called dermal papillae from strips of human hair cells. These cells are located at the base of a hair and contain the ‘instruction book’ for the successful growth of new hair.

Next, they cloned the cells in a dish, making sure they had several copies of each cell. Similar procedures have been done previously but without any results in getting the cells grow hair after they have been put back into skin.

The Anglo-American team decided to turn the dish of cells upside down, to help them to form into the clumps found in nature. These clumps were transplanted into human skin grafted onto the backs of mice.

It was found that the cells from each of the seven human donors grew hairs and in some cases, the tufts broke through the skin.

Although the hairs were white in colour, Durham researcher Professor Colin Jahoda is optimistic it should be possible to create coloured hair and by using a sample of a person’s own cells, any new hair should be very similar in texture and curliness.

“It’s a key step because it is saying that you can multiply the process. It’s not just about one-for-one replacement. But you need to get hair that is the right colour and texture and this will need further work before human clinical trials can begin,” he said.

The cost to patients is still yet to be determined as clinical trials need to be carried out first. However, it is likely to be cheaper than hair transplants which can range anywhere in price from £6,000 all the way up to £30,000 per patient.

Autoimmune diseases linked to a diet high in salt

Scientists claim that the typical modern day diet that is high in salt could be a key factor behind recent increases in the cases of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, lupus, alopecia, asthma and eczema.

An autoimmune disease occurs after the immune system attacks healthy body cells instead of fighting off disease and infection as it should be doing. An autoimmune disease can drastically vary in the severity of symptoms – sometimes flaring up and other times they can go into remission and disappear for some time.

Initial symptoms are usually fatigue, muscle aches and a low fever. A usual indicator of an autoimmune disease is inflammation, resulting in redness, heat, pain and swelling. The treatment for an autoimmune disease will depend on the specific disease but usually the main aim is to reduce inflammation.

A common autoimmune disease is the neurological condition multiple sclerosis, which affects around 100,000 people around the UK. It develops after a protein surrounding the brain and spinal cord (myelin) becomes damaged following a breakdown in the immune system. This disrupts nerve signals from the brain to the rest of the body resulting in loss of vision, muscle stiffness and uncontrollable movement, fatigue and ataxia (balance and coordination problems).

Reporting their data in the journal Nature, scientists from Yale University in the U.S. and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, say that they believe salt consumption could be connected to rising rates in autoimmune diseases. Previously many health experts have stated that genetics increase the risk of such diseases in addition to our surrounding environment. Other reasons for the progression of multiple sclerosis are from a viral infection, smoking and a lack of vitamin D.
In their report, the researchers note: “This study is the first to indicate that excess salt may be one of the environmental factors driving the increased incidence of autoimmune diseases.”

For their study, the team decided to focus on the presence of T helper cells in the body. T helpers are a sub-group of lymphocytes that work to help other cells fight viruses or bacteria by releasing T cell cytokines.

A subset of these T helper cells are known as ‘Th17 cells’ and past researcher has suggested that the Th17 cells help to promote inflammation that is important for defending against pathogens, and connected to diseases like multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Treatment options for some of these diseases involve manipulating T cell function.

Vijay Kuchroo of the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a member of the Broad Institute, says: “The question we wanted to pursue was: How does this highly pathogenic, pro-inflammatory T cell develop. Once we have a more nuanced understanding of the development of the pathogenic Th17 cells, we may be able to pursue ways to regulate them or their function.”

The scientists found that by exposing the Th17 cells to a salt solution made them act more ‘aggressively’. In addition, it was discovered that adding salt to the diet of mice actually increased the number Th17 cells and that genetically engineered mice with a form of MS, suffered with more severe MS disease in comparison to those mice fed a more ‘normal’ diet.

Study co-author Ralf Linker, from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, said: “These findings are an important contribution to the understanding of multiple sclerosis and may offer new targets for a better treatment of the disease, for which at present there is no cure.”

Another of the study’s authors, Professor David Hafler, from Yale University, added: “These are not diseases of bad genes alone or diseases caused by the environment, but diseases of a bad interaction between genes and the environment. Humans were genetically selected for conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where there was no salt. Today, Western diets all have high salt content and that has led to increase in hypertension and perhaps autoimmune disease as well.”

The bald truth on Velodrome gold

As Team Great Britain’s ‘super Saturday’ came to a close on Saturday night, the nation was left to savour our greatest Olympic day since 1908, with gold medals being picked up Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford during the closing proceedings in the evening.

However, earlier in the day, people around Britain were already seeing their emotions reach fever pitch with the heart-warming tale of female cyclist Joanna Rowsell who bagged gold together with her teammates Laura Trott and Dani King. The Trio managed to beat the United States in front of a jam-packed Velodrome audience captivated by their enthralling 3000m race.

After finishing her emotional lap of honour, Joanna jubilantly roared and showed absolutely no hesitation in pulling off her cycling helmet, to reveal her almost completely bald head due to the hair loss condition Alopecia.

The 23-year-old from Cheam near Sutton, was diagnosed with alopecia at the age of 10 after first losing one of her eyebrows. Months later saw chunks of her hair begin to fall out and then shortly after this Joanna lost her eyelashes. Despite the best attempts of doctors to treat her, she was given the news that her condition was not curable.

The specific cause of alopecia is still open to debate, although many experts are in agreement that it is a disease of the immune system, whereby the immune system attacks the hair follicles. Others agree that the hair loss can also be attributed to stress, and Gail Porter is one celebrity who is suspected to suffer from stress-induced alopecia areata, following the collapse of her marriage to Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave in 2005.

Yesterday morning, Joanna spoke to the television show Daybreak regarding her Olympic experiences, and said, “I’ve always had the opinion that you only live once, I’m not going to let having alopecia hold me back. It has been great being a cyclist; it has given me so much more confidence in myself. Being an Olympic medal winner can’t help but give you even more confidence and I think if I can help raise awareness too that will help. I was over the moon to win. The crowd were going crazy and I was just trying to soak up the atmosphere. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity: home games, a gold medal and a world record. I’ve been so excited ever since it was announced that it was going to be in London. The crowd and their support definitely helped spur us on.”

Joanna’s gold medal happened to coincidentally fall on International Alopecia Day, an event which aims to raise awareness of the condition, and her story of success in the Olympics will prove an inspiration to the 8 million women in the UK who are believed to be suffering from some type of hair loss.

One effective treatment for alopecia areata in women is Minoxidil, which is dispensed by Medical Specialists as Regaine treatment for women, containing 2% Minoxidil. When asked, David Bailey, a UK leading Trichologist said, “2% Minoxidil is likely to give a cosmetically acceptable regrowth in those with patchy alopecia areata, but, using 5% Minoxidil in clinical trials gave an 81% response (1). It would appear that an occlusion of the treated area appears to be necessary to achieve and maintain maximum results.”

In addition, women can obtain Florisene from the Medical Specialists Pharmacy chemist shop, at just £13.95 for 90 tablets. Florisene has been developed by one of Britain’s leading hair experts following 10 years of clinical research, and is particularly effective for women between the ages of 18 to 50.

(1)     Fiedler-Weiss VC. (1987) “Topical minoxidil solution (1% and 5%) in the treatment of alopecia areata..” J Am Acad Dermatol. 16(3 Pt 2):745-8.