Hair Restoration Breakthroughs Still Years Away

In the world of hair restoration, hair cloning is the Holy Grail hair transplant doctors and researchers look to provide a balding man with an unlimited supply of his own hair that can give him back what genetics took away.

In other words, it's a big deal. The next "big thing."

Hair transplant doctors today remove donor hair from the back of the head, divide it up into grafts as small as one or two hairs, and implant them in balding areas in the front, top and crown. Most of these donor hairs will never fall out because they come from the back of the head, an area that provides a genetic resistance to DHT, the hormone that causes male pattern baldness.

Today's hair transplant patient can get coverage. He can even get density. But what he can't get is ALL his hair back.

The scientific theory behind hair cloning involves removing hair follicle cells, multiplying them in the laboratory, and then transplanting them back into the patient's scalp. This process is not true "cloning" but rather, tissue engineering or cell therapy. Hair cloning is a misnomer that has stuck and is used to describe the general process of hair multiplication. Actual cloning is when an exact copy of a living cell or organism is produced; not the same thing.

Unfortunately, just like the Holy Grail, hair cloning, or hair multiplication, is proving to be almost as elusive as doctors and hair loss sufferers patiently wait for a major breakthrough to occur. Even so, the excitement and hope for that eventual breakthrough is slowly pushing the research forward. During 19th annual meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) held recently in Anchorage, Alaska, hair cloning was a hot topic up for discussion.

"There are no major advancements yet, but we're getting closer," reported Dr. Glenn Charles, of the Charles Medical Group, a hair transplant clinic in Boca Raton, Florida. "If there is a breakthrough, it will likely be available in Europe before the United States because of FDA limitations."

Hair cloning isn't the only major advancement hair restoration scientists are pursuing. A close second is suppressing the gene that causes male pattern baldness. "We are researching ways to find the specific gene responsible for hair loss and shut it off before it causes any unwanted hair loss," Dr. Charles explains. "If we can find that gene, we may be able to alter it." Dr. Charles estimates that we could be 5-10 years away from seeing major breakthroughs in both preventing hair loss and reversing its effects.

"But that doesn't mean progress isn't being made here and now," Charles added.

Jason L Morrow is the founder and editor of OmniMedicalSearch.com [http://www.omnimedicalsearch.com] and free-lance medical writer. Dr. Glenn Charles is the founder of Charles Medical Group, a hair transplant clinic in Boca Raton, Florida.

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