FOLLICA interview on NBC.......link

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Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 4:53 pm
Posts: 1558 http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en- … 49264afc01

That should be the link, you may have to cut and paste to the tool bar.

Here is their patent, http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo= … SPLAY=DESC

Ive read through the various experiments. What they appear to do is to dermabrate the skin, block epidermal growth factor and wnt expression for nine days (I know of something that does both), apply keratinocyte growth factor afterwards. In one test example, they also started using minoxidil at day 11 until hairgerms are detected.

They dont up WNT in most of the experimental examples. Apparently wnt-signalling gets up after a wound naturally—so perhaps lithium chloride and wnt protiens aren’t necessary. They weren’t mentioned in most of the examples way down in the patent.

They regrew human hair on human skin grafted onto a SCID mouse. They have recruited for their first trial. Their company features one guy who used to be the head of Merk Pharmaceutical and one guy who used to head Upjohn, so “the big guns” are in on this. Follica is owned by Gillette, who is in turn owned by Proctor and Gamble

The bios of their management is availaible on this page if you click over each persons picture. There are some very impressive bios and alot of experience here. http://www.follicabio.com/

There’s something I’ve been thinking about recently. Correct me if I’m wrong here –

I still hear that the 9-day WNT blockage issue is mostly about pigmentation in the new hairs. But then doesn’t that whole scenario sound a bit off? And all the more so, if now we’re deciding that the WNT signalling doesn’t even need artificial boosting?

It seems like this would imply that all we would really ever need to do to get (unpigmented) new hairs would be the wounding step.

But in the real world that won’t work. I can’t just dermabrade my skin once, and then sit back & wait two months for a gorgeous new mop of (white) terminal hairs covering the whole wounded area.


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» I still hear that the 9-day WNT blockage issue is mostly about
» pigmentation in the new hairs. But then doesn’t that whole scenario sound
» a bit off? And all the more so, if now we’re deciding that the WNT
» signalling doesn’t even need artificial boosting? In some embodiments, they merely blocked epidermal growth factor during the re-epilithialization period (nine days) and applied minoxidil on day 11 until hair germ detection. I think it was example 14 or whatnot. The keratinocyte growth factor and wnt protiens weren’t present in that embodiment. However, they got ALOT more new hair in mice when wnt was added on day 10-until hair germ detection. Something like 14 hairs vs 100 hairs if I remember correctly.
»
»
» It seems like this would imply that all we would really ever need to do to
» get (unpigmented) new hairs would be the wounding step. Klingman noted in some acne dermabrasion patients some de noveau hair growth on faces years ago, but you dont sleep on your face. The wounds cant be sutured or closed, but have to heal openly and naturally. With no additional “help”, these hairs would probably not be all that great cosmeticallly. They are adding the KGF, the EGF-blockers, the wnt protiens, and the minox in order to help larger, better hairs to be built from the stem cells

My hope is this…they can at least dermabrate the donor area and thicken up DONOR area hair, so more is available for transplantation. Or perhaps, AFTER an FUE transplant, the former donor area could be shaved and intricately treated to make more donor-area hair in this way. Its less invasive than getting entire hairs culled and having them culled for stem cells, and would NO DOUBT be much cheaper. Human bald skin in the front of the scalp has been through a immunological war zone during the baldness process of fibrosis, inflammation, negative cytokine presence, oxides, and the loss of a water layer and the presence of fatty acids in the thinned skin up there, yet a thickened dermal layer------so its the worst place possible to “grow” hair, but you donor area scalp would be the best place on the body to try and “grow” hair----provided on probaby would have to sleep on their stomach for a few weeks…

I DO KNOW THIS, INTERCYTEX OR ADERANS HAVE BEEN AT IT FOR YEARS AND NONE OF THEM HAVE BEEN WILLING TO GO ONTO THE TODAY SHOW AND SAY THAT THEY THINK ITS GOING TO HAPPEN IN JUST A FEW YEARS. That ought to tell you about how confident they are in this

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»

Hi benji & cal…hope you are doing fine !

benji…the link does not work !

I don’t need convincing that Follica means business with this stuff. There has to be something to it just based on the attention/effort they’re giving it.

But the results still raise questions in my mind. When the pigmentation issue is discounted, then I still don’t see how the proposed process is any different than what we could already be doing right now.

Unless I’m misunderstanding the process, it still sounds like a combination of conventional dermabrasion and then lithium choride application would do most of the same thing (in terms of the raw hair growth if not the color). And I don’t know anyone who has avoided a HT by a round of DA and then dumping lithium chloride onto their scalp for a few weeks. (I mean, we’re talking about this process lately as if it’s gonna be popping out full teenage-density patches of terminal hairs?)

Just from my own experience with DA, I don’t think the “sleeping on the wound” issue or any of that is enough to make a significant difference. When the DA process is done correctly, the regeneration of the area just doesn’t strike me as being that fragile. There’s almost no bleeding. The skin just gets red and then peels in a week and a half. It works the same as far as I can see whether something touches the area occasionally during that time or not.

I could definitely see how this wounding/WNT process could produce some hairs. But the idea that it’s gonna sprout dense, dark, fully-terminal patches of hair everywhere they do it? That’s pretty hard for me to swallow. The words “cosmetically significant” come rushing back to my mind here. The prospect of getting some more Minox-grade vellus shit growing in a few places doesn’t exactly inspire much enthusiasm.

The only way the idea of new REAL hair growth makes sense to me is if the chemicals they’re hitting the areas with are REALLY affecting the process. But as I read the data so far, the 9-day WNT blocking step isn’t supposed to be affecting the overall hair growth other than the color. (Right?)

And the talk of “acne patients getting regrowth” and the like? That just makes me even less optimistic. In the hair loss world, we’re so hard-up for any little scrap of new hair growth that I can’t imagine this would have gone under our radar while producing any decent hairs at all. I mean, Minox “regrows” tiny vellus crap and we readily mess with it twice a day as if it’s doing something decent.

I guess we’ll know more in a few months one way or the other.

Isnt this only proven on mice or rats

if so , dont we have to wait until it has been proven to do the same thing in humans before getting too excited

Everyone can grow hair on mice

» Everyone can grow hair on mice

even ear…

these fucking mice will conquer the world

because it’s HUMAN SKIN in a mice, with HUMAN HAIRS, it’s different, is not only a simple mice… so let’s wait and see what they are doing…

» because it’s HUMAN SKIN in a mice, with HUMAN HAIRS, it’s
» different, is not only a simple mice… so let’s wait and see what they
» are doing…

You made the only sensible comment in the thread. You noticed that THEY HAVE INDEED GROWN HUMAN HAIR ON HUMAN SKIN THAT WAS GRAFTED ONTO A MOUSE’S BACK. Im pretty certain you have been smart enough to have actually read the goddamned patent, unlike everyone else seems to be.

I see Im wasting my time here thesedays. I only learn from what I research myself, as Im not learning anything from the board much anymore that I cant by checking up on various company, public trials, and dermatolgical journal webistes.

I don’t see how my last big post was so insensible.

I’m not trying to talk everyone out of the idea that their plan will work. I’m just geniunely perplexed about how it will do the job so much better than existing stuff. I would love to be convinced that it really will do the job much better than past hair results from dermabrasion/wounding.

Anyone remember this story:

Powder regrows fingers: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Feb18/0,4670,RegrowingFingers,00.html

Hmm, human skin grafted onto a mouses back… If the flutagel really works, this could be a sign that the wounding works in humans too. Because in the sintov study they have also used human skin grafted onto mouses…