A New Cure For Baldness In Hair Cloning

One of the relatively new hair restoration procedures which is currently being developed, and is eagerly anticipated, can be the breakthrough cure for baldness and hair thinning. It is one which is the product of extensive stem cell research, and has been met with controversy due to the ethical and legal issues associated with. Nevertheless, hair cloning, if it reaches its full development, will provide a solution to the aesthetic concerns people have with hair loss.

Actually the procedure isn’t so much hair cloning as it is hair multiplication. In cloning, the hair’s makeup is copied and reproduced faithfully to come up with another strand. Hair multiplication involves the harvesting of healthy hair follicle stem cells, similar to the process used with hair transplantation. But instead of immediately planting the strand on the person’s bald spot, its stem cells are initially cultured and allowed to multiply within controlled laboratory conditions. They are then reattached to minute skin-cell ‘scaffolds,’ before implanting the new strands on the affected areas on the scalp. The process basically involves taking stem cells from the hair bulb, promote growth in isolation through culture, and derive an increased amount of hair seeds from a single cell, those which can be then directly injected into the scalp, resulting in the creation of new hair follicles.

It has been discovered that certain follicles, after transplantation, do much more than regeneration; they also transmit chemical signals. The surrounding follicle cells which have been stunted by the aging process react to such signals through regeneration, they are consequently revitalized to grow back into healthy hair strands. The results have been proven in studies with lab mice, as well as in several cases of human skin cultures.

One interesting experiment involved transplanting dermal sheath cells (those which compose the lowest section of the hair follicle) from the scalp to another person’s forearm. The new cells encouraged the growth of new hair in the recipient. Analysis of the strand showed that the chromosome makeup of the strand was an equal combination of the donor and the recipient’s individual chromosomes. This proves to an extent that dermal sheath cells can be transplanted without being rejected, and if cultivation becomes successful within laboratory conditions; this can result in the production of a virtually unlimited supply of ‘spare’ hair strands, suitable for transplant.

Even with such promising results, the problems facing this procedure are numerous. There is still the necessity to determine which of the basic components of the follicle can be reproduced and transplanted successfully, and the feasibility of efficient reproduction of the strand outside the person’s body is yet to be established. At present, it is also quite difficult to determine if the strands will grow in the right direction, so a ‘scaffolding’ might be needed to guide the strand while it is growing. The strand should also be inserted into the recipient’s scalp in such a way that it will continuously grow and regenerate, as well as encourage the adjacent strands to do the same. Researchers predict that with the pace at which the study progresses, the reality of hair multiplication may be as soon as five years down the road.