Itallian stem-cell researcher says to have treatment in months?

[edit] Hair multiplication (upcoming treatment)
Stem cells and dermal papilla cells have been discovered in hair follicles and some researchers predict research on these follicular cells may lead to successes in treating baldness through hair multiplication, also called hair cloning.[citation needed] This treatment is expected to initially work through harvesting such cells from existing follicles, multiplying them in cultures, and injecting or implanting groups of cells into the scalp. Later treatments may be able to simply signal follicle stem cells to transmit chemical signals to nearby follicle cells which have shrunk during the aging process, which respond to these signals by regenerating and once again making healthy hair.

Unfortunately, this new approach to treating baldness appears to be taking longer than expected. The first products are now expected to hit the market in 2009/2010. However, it remains unclear how effective they are going to be. It has been suggested that only future generations of HM will allow patients to grow as much hair as they want.

HM is being developed by two independent companies: ARI (Aderans Research Institute, a Japanese owned company in the USA) and Intercytex, a company in Manchester (UK).[19] [20]

On October 2006, UK biotechnology firm Intercytex announced they have successfully tested a method of removing hair follicles from the back of the neck, multiplying them and then reimplanting the cells into the scalp. The initial testing resulted in 70% of male patients regrowing hair. This treatment method is expected to be available to the public by 2009 [6][7]. On October 6, 2006, the company was awarded a £1.85 million ($3.63 million) grant by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through the Technology Programme to develop an automated manufacturing process for ICX-TRC, Intercytex’s novel hair regeneration therapy. The grant will be used primarily to develop a dedicated robotic system to support the commercial-scale production of dermal papilla (DP) cells, the main cells involved in hair regeneration and the key component of ICX-TRC. Preliminary reports of efficacy of ICX-TRC in hair restoration are expected in fall of 2007.

In January 2007, Italian stem-cell researchers say they’ve come up with a new technique for curing baldness. Pierluigi Santi of a Genoa clinic said stem cells could be used to “multiply” hair roots. He said the clinic would be ready to perform its first hair transplants on priority patients - those who have lost their hair in fires or other accidents - within a few months. After that, he said, “we’ll open our doors to paying customers”. Santi’s approach works by splitting roots and growing new follicles.

In May 2007, U.S. company Follica Inc, announced they have licensed technology from the University of Pennsylvania which can regenerate hair follicles by reawakening genes which were once active only in the embryo stage of human development.[8] [9] [10] [11] [12][13]

[edit] Scalp Massage

Come on rooster that’s a wiki pretty old stuff dear !and that Italian researcher is keeping total silence !

The italian guy just wanted some atraction and funding. thats all. He’s claiming things that Gho has already surpassed with better solutions and abandoned.

It’s just another con artist in hair loss industry.

I can’t even believe that wikipedia is listing it still.

The information contained things that were absolutely contradicting each other. For example they claimed that they will treat burn patients very soon (well I think that it was talking about autumn 2007, but I’m really not sure here) and then when you read the research study, you could clearly see that they just finished preliminary experiments on mouse that do not even suffer from hair loss.

» The italian guy just wanted some atraction and funding. thats all. He’s
» claiming things that Gho has already surpassed with better solutions and
» abandoned.
»
» It’s just another con artist in hair loss industry.

I don’t think this is a case of being a con artist as the work coming from these guys is well-received in the research community. I think it is a case of journalistic irresponsibility. Journalists make more of an impact if they hype articles than if they stay to the middle ground. Non-scientists then read those articles and take them as if they are statements backed up by proven experiments.

After the above mentioned article was released, I contacted both Santi and Raposio and received information that was in extreme conflict with what was released in the article. In fact, I was told that the research was in the “very early” stages, and it would take a great deal of time before it would be available to the public if in fact it ever became available.

I put the misinformation more on the journalist that released this BS than I do on the researchers. If they were out to con people, they would have attempted to con me as opposed to telling me the truth about their research. I think when trying to find out the truth about such matters it is always better to trust the source of the information more than 2nd hand interpretation of the information–especially where journalists are concerned.

I think you are true James.

Ppl like great stories and each time the story gets retold, it’s better.

» I think you are true James.
»
» Ppl like great stories and each time the story gets retold, it’s better.

At the same time though I do not believe that the researchers could not make a public announcement and go straight with the facts.

Also It is funny that they seem to be ignoring gho’s work. They seem to be working on something that has already been solved to a great extent.

I mean, was not it Santi who did it first on mice, then abandoned the research and went into cancer research instead, then gho took his work and pushed it miles and miles forward (he even deprecated the transection technique and found something better). So what is this Santi talking about?

It really looks to me like Santi’s cancer research run out of money, so this was a nice way how to bring some more attention and get some free public tv appearance.

» I mean, was not it Santi who did it first on mice, then abandoned the
» research and went into cancer research instead, then gho took his work and
» pushed it miles and miles forward (he even deprecated the transection
» technique and found something better). So what is this Santi talking
» about?
»
» It really looks to me like Santi’s cancer research run out of money, so
» this was a nice way how to bring some more attention and get some free
» public tv appearance.

Actually it was Jahoda and Oliver who first did this in mice. The Italians were involved in the early research on bisection of human hair follicles. I don’t think they preceded Gho. I think they were working along similar lines at about the same time. The Italians showed that lower third follicles continued to grow at a normal rate with normal diameter hair when cultured and that the upper 2/3 follicle grew with diminished diameter hair.

Swinehart performed an experiment where he transected follicles and implanted them back into the skin. He found that the upper 2/3rds grew inconsistently and with thinner diameter hair. This confirmed what the Italians had found, but Swinehart also found that the lower thirds grew inconsistently as well.

(I’m purposely leaving out Kim’s work, which provided a foundation of most of what I’m discussing). Gho went a step further than either Swinehart or the Italians and decided to leave the lower third in the skin without removing it. He found that when it was transected at the right depth, the hair grew back normally, thus confirming what the Italians found and also solving Swinehart’s dilemma with inconsistent donor regrowth (although Gho’s work preceded Swinehart’s). Many people accused Gho of lying about his result. But in 2004 an independent study confirmed the donor regrowth aspect of FM.

Gho realized that most HT doctors soak their grafts in saline solution and that this causes apoptosis (death) of the associated cells. In fact, it’s odd that Swinehart used saline in his failed experiment because he should have known better. At any rate, Gho experimented with soaking the upper 2/3 amputated grafts in hair follicle culturing mediums before implanting them and this proved to be quite successful. While this might seem shocking, Oliver had successfully performed similar research as far back as the 1960’s. So even though Gho’s techniques appear to be quite far out, the foundation of the research was actually performed by others. Gho just managed to put it all together and try it in humans.

Of course Gho’s old FM procedure was inconsistent because human hair cycles independently. Thus each follicle grows to a different depth in the skin making it very difficult to judge the depth at which to transect the follicle.

Santi and Raposio are well aware of Gho’s work, although they don’t comment on it publicly. They have worked similar ground to Gho for many years, but it appears their latest supposed breakthrough has basic differences that separate it from Gho’s. Unfortunately, the guys are extremely tight-lipped about it. Personally, I don’t think their new procedure will ever leave their laboratory. So in that respect, their work is not extremely important. It is interesting though.

I agree that researchers tend to grandstand for money, and I imagine the Italians are doing this to a degree. It is just that when you put hungry researchers together with hungry journalist, you tend to receive a boatload of crap. Maybe it is because each person is trying to outdo the other? I’ve found that when you go straight to the source, you tend to get a lot less crap.