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Banishing Baldness?
Scientists inch closer to figuring out how hair
grows.
By Kelley Colihan
WebMD Health News
How
does hair grow? We really don’t know. It’s a
fascinating and complex system of chemical signals
being sent to the follicles to tell them when to
produce and when to rest. But it’s still largely a
mystery.
Now
scientists at Stanford are a step closer to cracking
the code of hair growth.
They
discovered that in mice, a certain molecule, called
laminin-511, sends a signal to cells urging hair
follicles to grow.
Could this lead to the death of the comb-over?
“Perhaps,” says Stanford lead researcher Jing Gao,
MD, in prepared statements. “Now we have a signal
protein that can support the microenvironment for
hair development, and maybe also for hair renewal."
Researchers believe this chemical signal may also
play a role in how other body parts, like the
kidneys, eyes, ears, nose, and face, develop. Or it
could also be instrumental in telling the body how
to create arms and legs.
For
the study, the researchers genetically engineered
mice embryos so they lacked laminin-511. They
discovered that as mammals develop, the molecule
laminin-511 acts like a good hostess at a cocktail
party, bringing together two nervous people and
getting them to talk to each other.
In
this case the molecule brings together two cell
compartments of the skin. Those cells basically
start to chat, triggering a cascade of information
that leads to creating hair follicles.
"There are a lot of different causes of hair loss.
Further research will test whether any forms of hair
loss are influenced by laminin-511," study co-author
Peter Marinkovich, of Stanford's Program in
Epithelial Biology, says in a news release.
"Injecting laminin-511 into the skin might, under
some circumstances, promote hair growth," he
says.
If
that works, then Marinkovich says the laminin-511
could be used as a drug, slipped under skin where
you want hair to grow. It could also potentially
block hair growth by injecting antibodies against
laminin-511.
The
research team included members from Stanford
University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical
School, Osaka University, and the Washington
University School of Medicine.
The
results are published in the Aug. 1 issue of Genes &
Development.
©
WebMD. All rights reserved.
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"Could this lead
to the death of the comb-over?" |
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