Researchers at several different institutions are developing ways to treat hair loss, which is a problem for many people for a variety of reasons. Individuals that experience hair loss can use medications or try follicle transplants, but the efficacy of those therapeutics is limited.
Stem cells, scientists have found, are a good tool for treating hair loss. While it took some time to perfect their use, investigators have created a method for ‘farming’ hair follicles on a surface that can be implanted into a patient, where it’s meant to start growing like regular hair. They used mice with immunodeficiencies to do it though.
If this technique is done one day with humans, clinicians could take some viable hair follicles from a patient, and then expand them into a bigger colony that could be subsequently grafted back onto the same person. The video explains the treatment in more detail.
