Stem Cell Technique to Clone Hair May Help Hair Loss Sufferers

New stem cell techniques to clone hair may help hair loss sufferers, a number of scientists claimed this past week.  The combination of breakthroughs in stem cell technology and recent discoveries in the genetics of hair loss could result in a major breakthrough in the treatment of hair loss, they said.

In a recent stem cell study of hair loss led by Viljar Jaks of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, scientists examined mouse hair follicles for signs of rapid hair growth. They discovered a protein, called Lgr5, on the surface of long-lived, active stem cells in hair cells. Apparently, cells carrying the Lgr5 marker were capable of maintaining hair follicles for as long as 14 months, the researchers said.

While still in the early stages, these recent discoveries could prove crucial in the ongoing push to develop a stem cell technique to clone hair and cure hair loss. The most likely treatment may end up being stopping hair loss before it develops into male pattern baldness. “Early prediction before hair loss starts may lead to some interesting therapies that are more effective than treating late-stage hair loss,” said Tim Spector, a researcher in Kings College London who led a related study of the DNA of hair loss.


The average person has about 100,000 scalp hairs. While most people experience some hair loss as they age, men suffering from pattern hair loss - a genetic condition inherited from parents — can suffer from significant hair loss.

Hair loss or baldness is caused by a gradual shrinking of hair follicles on top of the head. Eventually, they sprout less and less hair. Balding men and some women have follicles that shrink so much they stop producing hair at all.

In the past two years, however, the hope has arisen that it might be possible to stimulate new hair growth when a University of Pennsylvania researcher discovered that mice healing from wounds can produce brand new hair follicles. In 2007, the researcher, Dr. George Cotsarelis, showed that when skin is damaged, the skin cells behave like a stem cell and generate new hair follicles.

Hair Follicle Stem Cells Display Amazing New Properties, May Help Hair Growth Treatments

More detail has surfaced on that new study of hair follicle stem cells conducted at the Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish medical university, and published a week ago in Nature Genetics.

Science Daily is reporting that the research has uncovered what it terms “completely new properties of the skin’s stem cells,” discoveries that “contradict previous findings.”

According to Science Daily, the new search shows that hair follicle stem cells can “divide actively and transport themselves through the skin tissue.”

“The stem cells don’t behave at all in the way we’d previously thought, and are found in unexpected places”, says Professor Rune Toftgård, one of the scientists at Karolinska Institutet responsible for the study. “We’re now investigating the part played by the stem cells in the wound-healing process and the development of basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer.”

The stem cells examined by the present study are found in the skin’s hair follicles, around which the cells are able to move depending on their stage of growth. The scientists believe that their growth is governed by previously known mechanism called Hedgehog signalling.

Mutations in the genes that control this signal system can cause the delayed deactivation of signal transference; the signals thus continue uninhibited, which increases the risk of cancer.