Background
Remember Dolly the sheep? The first animal that was cloned via somatic cells (specialized cells that made up your organs).
Hair cloning though is nothing as complicated as Dolly as it is not about duplicating an army of new hair follicles because hair
follicles are small individual organs and it's very hard to be replicated as a whole outside the body.
The procedure is more related to manipulating and stimulating certain special cells to trigger new hairs and promote existing hair growth.
So let us understand how the whole process works.
For centuries baldness has always, ALWAYS been a stigma in the society and it's like a curse for men and women alike and in some
cases it can create massive depression and emotional problems. Up until the present moment, there is not a single solid and permanent
cure for common hair loss like Pattern Baldness, Alopecia Areata or other disease related hair conditions.
However, in recent years, scientists and researchers have progressed tremendously in understanding hair loss and are
brewing multiple solutions for a real cure. Advanced technology and a better understanding of genetics have led to the d
iscovery of DHT as a leading cause of Male Pattern Baldness and how different kinds of hair loss occur.
For sure you have heard of available hair treatments options like Propecia, Minoxidil, Low Level Light Therapy, Hair Transplant,
You can be sure that these options are indeed a very feasible choice for you to handle hair loss as they are effective in their own way.
However, all of these hair loss treatments are NEVER A PERMANENT solution if you are facing genetic hair loss because they don't solve your problems once and for all.
You might have to continue treatments and taking medications for the rest of your life to keep your
hair or visit your hair transplant surgeon after a few years to replenish additional hair loss.
Moreover, these treatments are also not suitable or effective for immune related hair loss because most cases, the hair follicles are damaged or dead.
Therefore, these are not the ultimate solution for hair loss but Hair Cloning is an entirely different cup of tea.
What is this technology anyway?
Cloning is still a relatively new technology that is stirring up the commotions recently.
Concentrated research began around a decade ago and new developments have only been spotlighted recently.
As the name says it, it's about a way on how you can actually promote and add new hair follicles to your head and if successful,
you can have an unlimited supply of potential growing hair follicles.
It's not a process where new hair follicles are created and implanted to your hair like most people might have imagine but it actually involves extracting,
cultivating and stimulating certain cells and specialized proteins like:
- Derma papilla
- Derma sheath
- Keratinocytes
- Laminin-511
The whole process is a little complicated but overall very interesting to read.
Therefore, I've divided the topic into a few chapters so that you can have a basic understanding on what it's all about.
If you are interested in knowing what this technology can do for you, I strongly recommend taking some time and read the few sections below.
The Basics of Follicular Unit Implantation
Follicular Cell Implantation is a key development component of the hair cloning process where it primarily involves in extracting,
growing and then reinserting back the cultured cells into your scalp.
This procedure can be said to be the epitome of hair cloning and it's one of the most promising method
that can possibly provide you with an unlimited supply of hair follicles.
The rapid progress in stem cells research opens up a diversity of possibilities in medical and health improvements like a more thorough understanding of how your cells multiply,
behave and most importantly, how do we manipulate and replicate them.
At the present moment, the possibilities are limitless where we receive new breakthroughs in stem cell technology on a regular basis.
Human cloning, genetic alternations, pre-programmed babies and even cloned organs that were once fiction are now becoming a near reality.
Even a new type of 'banking' system for storing stem cells for future 'needs' are booming everywhere. Do you have an account with them?
Hair loss, major or trivial happens generally to everyone. Whether it's related to
- Stress
- Pattern baldness
- Auto immune disorder
- Hormonal problems
- Age related factors
There is no way to avoid it as in other stuff in life.
Even if you might not be facing hair loss, over time your hair follicles will deteriorate and die due to the aging process.
Yet with all the available treatments today, up to now there isn't a way to permanently solve hair loss due to the simple fact that once your hair follicles die, it's lost forever.
Current Problems and Obstacles
There are major obstacles in hair cloning that will determine how soon the technology will be available for you.
Bear in mind, even after rectifying all these problems, there will still be multiple trials before the final product will be introduced to the market.
So let’s hope that they are solving these issues as fast as possible!
Inconsistent Quantity - Practical and theory are two very different things.
Even though experiments have shown some successes in generating new hair growth by injecting dermal papilla cells alone to the scalp,
the results of new follicle formation are still very doubtful. Two major companies from the UK and Japan that are currently undertaking trials in follicles cloning
reported that new hair follicles generated by implanting cultured dermal papilla cells directly into the scalp are not that promising.
The results clearly indicated that cultured cells alone might not be the only component that will stimulate new follicles to form.
One of the suspected reasons is the lack of a chemical ‘trigger’ that the cultured dermal papilla cells require for communicating with the nearby cells.
Fortunately for us, researchers have currently isolated these possible triggers and are on the way rectify this problem.
Cell Differentiation - Another major obstacle in hair cloning is how to keep the cultured cells differentiated.
One of the major obstacles in the process is that dermal cells that are multiplied in culture might not retain its original genetic traits after extraction.
One of the main reasons for that is because extracted dermal cells each are 'genetically programmed' to perform a unique function like communicating
with nearby cells to form into a hair follicle. When these cells are cultured, over time, these cells might lose the ability to perform its original task.
So plainly speaking, if these cells cannot trigger nearby cells to form to a hair follicle, these cells are practically useless in hair cloning.
This discovery has been linked to why success rates in cultured cells to form new hair follicles are much lower compared to the original extracted cells.
The way to overcome this matter is to keep these cells differentiated.
Hair Alignment -
How your new hair follicles align after formation is also one of the most troubling obstacles in cloning human hair.
During fetal development when the hair follicles started to form, they arranged themselves in a spiraling ‘grain’ pattern that starts from the center of your head.
However, the issue is not the same with newly induced hair follicles.
Each newly formed hair follicle might end up slanted at a different direction causing the new hair to sprout out at different angles.
Imagine how awkward it will be to see your new hair growing at all directions!
So the issue is, even after they managed to grow new hair follicles on your scalp,
it’s also equally important to make sure that the hairs grown are aligned properly.
Uneven Growth - Unlike Mother Nature who miraculously distributes your hair follicles evenly and neatly throughout your scalp and body,
our creation tends to be a little clumsier. That is simply because that besides getting the cells to grow and getting it to align properly,
scientists must also make sure that the cells are evenly distributed across the scalp.
If not, you might end up with patches of hair growth like a badly laid lawn!
As the success rates of consistent new follicular formation are still not reliable,
it's important that scientists find a way to ensure that the hair density throughout the scalp is balanced.
Allergies, Rejection and Mutation - After figuring out all of the above problems and getting them right, the final part is to always make sure that the cultured cells will blend in properly.
Allergies, rejections and possible cell mutations are common issues especially if you are using cells from another donor.
However, short term research indicates that the dermal papilla cells have a special immunity status which will not cause any allergic reactions from the recipient.
Still, to be safe, yet more extensive trials will be required.
Growth Restoration Today and Tomorrow
The hair follicle is a tiny organ with an odd power: It contains stem cells that can regenerate it.
At the base of the follicle is the hair bulb, where wildly growing matrix cells (search) become hair.
A little farther up the follicle is the mysterious feature called the bulge. That's where follicle stem cells (search) live.
When they get the right set of chemical signals, these self-renewing cells divide.
They don't divide like normal cells, in which both halves become new cells that keep splitting and developing.
Only one half of the follicle stem cell does that. The other half becomes a new stem cell, and stays put for future regeneration.
The Holy Grail of hair restoration would be to figure out exactly how these chemical signals work.
A future drug might contain all the signals needed to grow hair in bald areas of the head.
But the complexity of the body's chemical language means such a drug is decades from reality, Washenik says.
But it's already possible to seed bald areas of the head by transplanting follicle from areas where there's still plenty of hair.
This works pretty well for men, who generally don't lose the hair on the back of the head.
For women, however, age-related hair loss often affects the back of the head.
That's why hair transplants tend to be much less successful for women.
And there are only so many hair follicles. Even successful hair transplants don't grow as rich a crop of hair as most people would like.
Future Market Options
Existing conventional treatments, involving the transplant of whole hairs, represent the only means of regenerating bald or thinning areas.
This is a highly costly ($10,000 - $20,000) specialist procedure.
Extensive tissue is required, obtained by the removal of a large section of scalp leaving a significant scar at the donor site.
Individual follicles are removed from the dissected scalp by specialised technicians and then individually re-implanted into surgical incisions created in the scalp.
This procedure usually takes place during two, eight-hour implant sessions performed under a local anaesthetic.
A lengthy recovery period may be required during which time the patient may suffer from pain, bleeding and swelling of the scalp.
In general the cosmetic effect is excellent, however in all cases, the quality of outcome is limited by the amount of donor hair available.
Moreover, many individuals electing to undergo this procedure do not progress to transplant surgery as they have insufficient transplantable hair
follicles to benefit from the technique as between 2,000 - 5,000 follicles are often needed for this procedure.
The hair clone procedure is significantly less problematic than conventional hair transplants.
In terms of the amount of tissue taken from the patient, only a small sample of approximately 120 follicles is needed.
As a consequence, trauma suffered by the patient during the procedure may be dramatically reduced.
Furthermore, as dermal papilla (DP)cells can be derived from a very small area of hair-bearing scalp,
a much higher population of patients will be able to benefit from cloning hair than conventional transplantation.
Superficial injection of cultured cells into the scalp causes far less tissue damage than implanting multiple hair follicles and is a considerably simpler,
shorter and less painful process.
Major Players in the research
Hair cloning is not relatively 'fresh' concept due to the fact that it’s been researched and discussed for around over decade now.
There are many companies interested in advancing in this field but just a handful of them are seriously pursuing to develop a workable product for the public.
Most of these companies usually have backgrounds in stem cell research which concentrate on skin rejuvenation and repair products.
Therefore, these companies already have the right know how, knowledge and manpower to pursue and focus on cloning human hair.
Hair restoration indeed belongs to a very niche market and I am pretty sure that the first company that manages to hit the jackpot will
definitely be seeing a huge boost in their bottom line.
Therefore, most of them are heftily relying on the possible success of their hair restoration researches as their win or break point.
Some of these companies are
- Intercytex
- Aderans Research Institute
- Follica Bio Labs
- Histogen Labs
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