A team of researchers at Northwestern University has made a scientific breakthrough that may help in avoiding baldness. The most interesting part of this breakthrough is that the researchers have discovered that the key to achieving this goal lies in the hairy moles that often occur in various parts of the body.
According to the researchers, the molecule, osteopontin, which is responsible to trigger pesky moles on our skin to overproduce hair could be used to treat age-related hair loss.
Male pattern baldness is extremely common among men. Studies suggest about two-thirds of men will experience an appreciable amount of hair loss by the time they reach age 35. Additionally, a quarter of men will begin to have hair loss even before they are 21.
Hair loss among men makes them feel less attractive, depressed, or fearful of growing older. According to the researchers, as people grow old, hair follicles become stiffer.
The findings of the study were published in the journal PNAS. The study revealed that softening hair follicle cells by increasing the production of a particular type of microRNA could help in increasing hair growth and regeneration.
During the study, the scientists genetically manipulated the stem cells among mice in order to make them produce more miR-205, and hair growth was recorded in both young and old in mice.
According to media reports, Senior author of the study and professor of pathology and dermatology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Illinois, Rui Yi said that these mice started to grow hair in 10 days.
The researchers also pointed out that rather than generating new stem cells, they are stimulating the existing stem cells to grow hair.
“Because of the potential to deliver microRNA by nanoparticles directly into the skin, next we will test whether topically delivered miR-205 can stimulate hair growth first in mice. If successful, we will design experiments to test whether this microRNA can promote hair growth potentially in humans”, Yi said as quoted by several media outlets.
Moreover, the researchers are hopeful that the study will also be fruitful in humans.
