Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu
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- Feb 3, 2009
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- Cure for baldness hopes raised as scientists create new hair follicles from human skin cells
Vanishing act: Wayne Rooney models the bald look against West Ham in October 2008
Baldness could soon be given the brush-off after experts created new hair follicles from human skin cells for the first time.
It is a boost for men suffering conventional hair loss, such as footie ace Wayne Rooney , but scientists said women and burn victims would also benefit.
Seven donors cells were cloned and transplanted into human skin grafted on to mice.
New hair grew in five cases and the UK and US team plans to begin clinical trials in the near future.
Professor Angela Christiano, of Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, said: Current medications slow the loss of follicles or stimulate the growth of existing hairs, but they do not create new follicles.
Neither do conventional hair transplants, which relocate a set number of hairs from the back of the scalp to the front.
The follicles grow naturally from cells called dermal papillae. Experts cloned the cells and transplanted them into the skin.
The dermal papillae then clumped together, encouraging hair growth.
Prof Christiano said the technique could create large numbers of follicles from just a few hundred hairs.
She said: It could make transplantation available to people with a limited number of follicles, including those with female-pattern hair loss, scarring alopecia, and hair loss due to burns.
Professor Colin Jahoda, of Durham University, co-led the research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
He is still assessing the relationship between the host cells and transplanted ones but called the study an important step.
source.Cure for baldness hopes raised as scientists from Durham University and New York's Columbia University create new hair follicles from human skin cells - Mirror Online
Dawa ya kutibu kipara ipo njiani wanasayansi wanasema.
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