goBigtime

Here's another one to consider that we might see something of it in the next 10 years....



Stem cell link may reverse baldness
Brendan O'Malley
15mar04

THEY have been hailed as the answer to cancer and a fix for paralysis.

There seems no end to the hype surrounding stem cells and now scientists even think they could reverse baldness.

It has been suspected for a long time that most types of baldness are caused by disruption to the lifecycle of hair follicle cells.

Normal hair follicle cells, known as "bulge" cells, go through quiet times when they seem to do very little and active spurts when they multiply furiously and make new hairs.

A US team has now shown the bulge cells are in fact a type of stem cell.




In a report in today's edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology the team claims to have found a range of proteins made by the bulge cells which could potentially be coaxed into making hair.

The report also held out hope for people who have gone bald from immune diseases like alopecia, which recently affected paralysed former Superman star Christopher Reeve.

"Our results provide new avenues for increasing our understanding of (skin) stem cell biology and hair follicle growth and disease," the team said.

"The hair follicle stem cell genes could provide targets for the treatment of hair loss and other disorders of the (skin)."

Despite the plethora of dodgy baldness "cures", only two hair loss drugs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the US and its Australian equivalent the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

One of them, Minoxidil, was thought to affect hair growth by altering chemical flows in cells.

Intriguingly the US team found several genes which altered the same chemical flows in hair stem cells, but the genes were permanently switched on.

They also said their work could shed light on the ageing process; how wounds heal; and how cancer cells wreaked havoc on the body.


From: Http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...55E401,00.html