Here are some observations on the Follica patent.
The important experiment (on human skin growing human hair):
EXAMPLE 7
EDIHN-INDUCES NEW HAIR FOLLICLES IN HUMAN SKIN
MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
Grafting
[000210] Discarded human, adult scalp from the preauricular area obtained from plastic surgery was grafted onto immunodeficient (scid) mice. The graft was bandaged and allowed to heal, then was used in the wound healing study 3 months after grafting.
RESULTS
[000211 ] To determine whether human skin responded to EDIHN as did mouse skin, human skin was grafted onto SCID (immuno-deficient) mice and subjected to depilation by plucking and wound induction three days later. Seven days following wound induction, formation of new HF was observed in the human skin (Figure 2 IA; arrows indicate new HF) by hematoxylin and eosin staining of paraffin embedded tissue sections.
[000212] In additional experiments, adult human skin was grafted onto mice., abraded, and examined at 7 days post-abrasion. New HF were generated in the human skkx, which mimicked normal hair follicle formation during fetal development, as evidenced by staining for SlOO A6 or S100A4 (Figure 21B).
P-7628-PC
[000213] The results of this Example show that EDIHN can be used to generate hair growth inhuman skin as for mouse skin.
The new hair germs were formed in seven days, indicating the re-epilithialization period in human skin is shorter than in murine skin.
What they appear to be doing is this:
1)They pluck your existing hairs or depilate them out of the thinning area three days before wounding. This upped the number of new hairs grown in all experiments.
2)The abrade the skin (or CO2 laser it). They also put you on or administer a EGF-receptor blocker or a compound that inhbits EGF production in the skin. You will not be able to administer any ointment or any healing or anti-infective agent to the skin for a few days at least. I think three was the minumum mentioned in the patent. One might be water washing their head or using a very basic shampoo during this time. Its also mentioned in the patent that one is not to use any healing ointment or any substance that assists with infections at all for several days after the wounding, or any bandages at all. Im pretty sure they will not want you to sleep on the abraded part of the scalp for at least 3-5 days during the re-epilithialization period.
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After day 3 to day 12, you will be putting on a compound that is either WNT protiens or lithium salts or other lithium compounds that mimic WNT in the skin for certain. WNT manipulation was the biggest factor in success in the graph adjacent to the patent, and mice that had wnt overexpressed grew about ten times as much hair at first glance, even though mice that were simply wounded and the wound was allowed to heal utterly naturally did grow some hair.
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“Other” compounds along with wnt or wnt-mimetics will be used to help the process. A great many are mentioned. Anti-androgens like finasteride, fluridil, flutamide, cyterperone acetate, and spiro are mentioned in the patent as antiandrogens. Estrogen repceptor agonsits are mentioned. Beta Catenin, Minoxidil, FIberblast growth factor, - bromoindirubin-3’-oxime (BIO, hedgehog, certain dna fragments, particular nucleotides, hair follicle stem cells, DP cells, inner and outer root sheath cells are all mentioned in the patent as substances that can enhance hair follicle formation. Whatever compound they come up with might contain them all or at least several of them. There were a few more substances mentioned here also.
After about day 12 or so, it looks like they dont mention using anything else, so I imagine the process will be done at that time and you will be waiting another month or so to actually see little hairs emerging from your scalp.
Here is my take…This will almost certainly work in the back of the head----or the donor area. It should also work in parts of the scalp that have hair, whereby they can abrade the skin between existing hairs with a small instrument, resulting in thicker hair. Dermabrasion does not go deep, it merely removes the epilithial layer. Hair follicles in anagen reside 2-4 mm down in the dermis, and thus wont be hurt by it if they were not plucked. Im not so sure about the signalling environment or the reproductive capablilty of bald skin, especially long-bald skin, but I hope its effective there also. We will see, they are going right for human trials as they obviously think they have a winner. This is probably too complex to try at home, but I imagine the first co-hort will tell us all we need to know about its chances of working over large areas of the scalp------and soon. We might know by the end of the summer in fact, or only a couple of months after they commence a trial. Even if it makes “some” hair, refining the process with the correct compounds will probably enable it to make alot of hair. What I worry about is the human immune system marking these hairs (or better yet, not marking them as its been found recently that balding hairs have a substance removed from them that keeps the immune system from attacking them, resulting in loss of their immunological priveleges, hence why they die on us). I do not worry about this in the donor area scalp though. I think this will work in the back for sure, Im not sure about the front-----but here is to hoping.
I’ll start applying this stuff on my head soon. As for abrasion, I’m thinking about getting BHA scalp peels, they are mild but effective in removing upper layers & invigorating the skin.