These are two studies . If these two studies are legit they look good.
Study #1
A pilot study - 24 weeks topical treatment by latanoprost 0.1% increases hair growth in androgenetic alopecia
Ulrike Blume-Peytavi, Sanna Lönnfors, Kathrin Hillmann*, Natalie Garcia Bartels
Clinical Research Center for Hair and Skin Science, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
*E-mail: kathrin.hillmann@charite.de
Latanoprost is a prostaglandin analogue used as eye drops in glaucoma treatment. Known side effects are iridial and periocular hyper-pigmentation, eyelash changes including pigmentation, increased thickness, length and number.
Latanoprost has already shown efficacy in the treatment of eyelash alopecia, but knowledge on its effects on human scalp hair growth is not available.
To assess efficacy on hair growth and pigmentation. Furthermore to evaluate the effect on scalp pigmentation and the treatment duration needed to affect the hair growth, hair pigmentation, and scalp pigmentation, as well as to assess the safety of latanoprost. Sixteen male with mild androgenetic alopecia were included.
Latanoprost 0.1% and placebo were applied daily for 24 weeks on two minizones on the scalp. Measurements on hair growth, density, diameter, pigmentation and anagen/telogen ratio were performed throughout the study.
A significantly increased hair density compared to baseline was observed on the latanoprost-treated site after 24 weeks (P<0.001). Furthermore a significant difference in hair density between the investigational sites after 24 weeks could be evaluated (P=0.0004). No major adverse events were recorded.
Latanoprost significantly increased hair density and the amount of vellus hairs compared to baseline as well as the placebo-treated area from eight weeks on of topical treatment. Latanoprost could be useful in stimulating hair follicle activity and treating hair loss.
Study #2
Bimatoprost, a prostamide F2? analogue used for glaucoma, stimulates scalp hair follicle growth via receptors in the dermal papilla; is this a new approach for alopecia?
Karzan G. Khidhir*, Nilofer P. Farjo 1 , Bessam K. Farjo 1 , David F. Woodward 2 , Steven M. Picksley, Valerie A. Randall
Centre for Skin Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, United Kingdom; 1 Farjo Medical Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom; and 2 Allergan Inc, Irvine, CA, USA.
*E-mail: K.G.Khidhir@bradford.ac.uk
Bimatoprost, a prostamide F2? analogue treatment for glaucoma (ocular hypertension), stimulates eyelash growth as a side effect.
As Latisse, it recently gained FDA approval as eyelash hypotrichosis therapy. How bimatoprost works is unknown; possibilities include direct action on hair follicles or stimulating follicular blood flow.
To determine whether scalp hair follicles can respond to bimatoprost, since follicular responses often vary with body site, and to check whether any effect is through follicular receptors, scalp follicles were cultured with bimatoprost ± an antagonist and the location of the prostaglandin and prostamide F2? receptors (FP and FP-variants) investigated.
Scalp hair follicles were individually micro-dissected and cultured for 9 days with daily examination, photography and measurement or micro-dissected to component parts and pooled for each person for RT-PCR using specific primers.
Bimatoprost at 10 nM, 100 nM and 1?M significantly stimulated the hair follicle growth rate, percentage of anagen follicles, and overall amount of hair produced in a dose-responsive manner (n=10; P<0.05-0.01); the antagonist, AGN211336, blocked this. RT-PCR identified FP, altFP4, altFP1 gene expression only in dermal papillae and bulbar dermal sheath of follicles from 5 individuals.
Therefore, isolated human scalp hair follicles respond biologically to bimatoprost in organ culture and express the genes for FP and prostamide F2? receptor. Bimatoprost presumably acts directly on receptors within the follicular dermal papilla, altering paracrine factor production which regulates keratinocytes etc. to stimulate hair growth.
Bimatoprost and related drugs appear to offer an exciting, novel approach for the treatment of alopecia; this merits clinical investigation.